Put the Cart Back!

Today I journeyed out of my apartment to run a few errands: get an oil change, go to the bank, and grocery shop. All was going well. The weather was perfect and the fall foliage was beautiful. I was having a rather pleasant and productive day.

Once at the supermarket, out of habit, I parked near the shopping cart corral because I like to put the cart in its appropriate space. I am particularly anal about this because I absolutely despise when I begin to turn into a parking space only to discover a shopping cart in the way. Usually, I'll move on to a different spot. But if parking is difficult to find, I'll get out of my car to move the cart myself. The second reason why this annoys me is because the carts roll into parked cars causing damage.

On today, as I placed my groceries into the trunk of my truck, I observed a large truck (an Escalade I think) parked in the next lane facing me parked almost diagonally taking up two spaces. Now picture this. On my side of the lane, I was in the third spot from the cart corral. He was in the first and second spots from the corral. I understand that you want to ensure that your vehicle isn't hit, but really! As I watched him place his groceries in the car I said to myself "He's going to leave his shopping cart right there."  Based on his propensity for crooked parking I just felt it in my spirit that he would not take the 42 seconds that it would take to push his shopping cart around to the passenger side of his car to place it into the cart corral. And wouldn't you know he left that cart right there!  Clearly this was too much of an effort for him.

This was merely a brief encounter that didn't impact the rest of my day. However, I do find it to be inconsiderate to others and poor social etiquette.  The only exception that I would make is for the elderly and disabled. But their spots tend to be more spacious, so if they put their carts beside their parking space it usually won't prevent anyone else from parking and the next person to park there will grab it.

Honest moment: Be more considerate people. Don't be a cart ditcher! You wouldn't like it if it was you trying to find a parking space or if it was your car that was hit by an orphaned cart. We all need to share this space so let's think about others and remember that karma is real.