I seem to remember reading something on this site that OSC wrote about shopping carts. As I remember it, what he said was that he gets annoyed by people who just leave them in the parking lot, and that though he doesn't yell at the people or go out of his way to fetch the carts, if he happens to pass a cart on his way into the store, he'll grab it and bring it in, even though it makes his children think he's weird. I remember thinking what a good idea that was, and it made me start doing it.
(Well, until I ended up by pure chance getting a job where going out of my way to fetch carts was exactly what I did all day. I recently got a new job, a real job, in an office and everything, but I'm suffering from shopping cart burnout right now. I'll go back to being a Mature, Responsible Adult eventually, but for right now, keep those blasted carts away from me!)
But I can't find that piece anywhere. I tried doing a Search on the site for phrases like "shopping cart" or "cart" or "carts", and that didn't work. So I combed through all the Uncle Orson columns, where I assumed it was, and couldn't find it.
It was OSC who wrote that, wasn't it? Please tell me it wasn't someone else altogether. Is my mind just remembering it as OSC simply because it seems like the kind of thing he'd do? I could swear that OSC wrote it and that I read it here at Hatrack, but I can now find no evidence of it. Am I crazy, or . . .?
posted
I was a cart-guy for a couple of years when I was too young to work inside my store, so I have that extreme aversion to carts too. Anytime I go to a store with someone, I refuse to touch a cart. There is no way you can make me push it even if the person with me was an elderly person devoid of the strength to push one cart without falling down. Additionally, if someone I know doesn't put a cart away, I'll start berating them until they put it away. Otherwise, I won't let them leave the store.
posted
Ahhh, that explains it. It wasn't on Hatrack, it was a War Watch article on Ornery. Didn't expect it to be there. Thank you kindly. Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
And re-reading the article, I see I misremembered one point. He does go out of his way to collect them--sometimes to the point of even bringing in three or four at a time. Man, I could have used a couple of customers like him when I was working as a cart-guy.
Most customers just pushed the carts as far as their own vehicles, then left them there. Sometimes upside down. (I wish I were kidding about that.) A lot of people left their garbage in the carts. Things like half-empty soda bottles, wrappers from the deli, or unfinished food items. When they did that, it was my job to throw their garbage away.
Working at that job made me lose a lot of faith in humanity. You go through life, and most people seem decent enough when you talk to them, and you start to feel like maybe people as a whole aren't so bad. Then you get a job like that, and you see the proof of what these so-called "decent" people do when no one's watching over them. I was left with the distinct impression that most of them are, in fact, self-centered slobs when no one is looking. They know how to act civilized--they're nice enough when they talk to you, and so on--but you can tell they aren't truly civilized, otherwise they'd clean up after themselves.
Well, that's enough ranting about it. I'm starting to derail my own thread now. I now return you to your regularly scheduled lives.
posted
The only thing I use carts for is to pull them alongside my car and speed up to 50mph and slam them into other cars.
Posts: 31 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:My nephew was a cart-pusher for Wal-Mart for awhile. But he didn't call it that. He referred to it as parking lot maintenance specialist
One of my senior co-workers had written "Cart Navigation Specialist" on his name tag, which I always thought sounded kind of cool.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
What amazed me was finding out how much shopping carts cost. The all metal kind are several hundred dollars each. I wonder if the plastic kind are less expensive. I'm sure they are easier on cars.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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