abandoned_shopping_cartI’ve been invited to blah, blah, blah … blog.  I don’t know where to begin but I do know I don’t have much time for it.

I was going to blog about working through a famous sushi cookbook and relating my experiences, my failures and my triumphs but I figured I couldn’t cut it.

I was driving through my neighborhood and I noticed a few shopping carts distributed along the sidewalk in a strictly residential neighborhood.  I wasn’t taken so much by the fact that the carts were there, as I have grown accustomed to that, but I was wondering how they came to rest exactly where they were.  I think that those that feel entitled to take a shopping cart from a store and abandon it are just slightly lower than those people that think they can drive on MY ROAD but I wonder when and how they make the decision to park it at a specific place.  Is it something that is a conscious decision or is it random?

If I were to guess, I would think that the cart is never abandoned in front of the offender’s house.  That would make it too easy to track who the culprit is and therefore some punitive action could be taken.  The cart thief, if vindictive, might leave it in front of the neighbor’s house who called in the drunk and disorderly complaint a couple of nights ago, perhaps even leaving it on the porch.  Or the drop could be random; when done with it, just give it a push and let momentum take its course.  OK, I’m spending too much time on this.  The folks that steal these things don’t put as much time into their “crime” as I have just spent musing about it.  I say these scofflaws should be rounded up and forced to blog about their experiences in stealing carts so I don’t have to take the time to do it.  That would serve them right!

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nellie
Member

Personally, I love seeing abandoned shopping carts. It means two things: 1) the person didn’t drive to the grocery store. Instead, they walked, giving themselves a little exercise and giving our environment a break. Also giving a raspberry to the oil industry. 2) The guy they hire to go around the neighborhood and retrieve shopping carts is still employed, boosting our economy, as well as the employee’s bank account and self esteem.

On a good day, I am one of those people who leaves a shopping cart on the sidewalk. And it will be right in front of my house.

Kalima
Admin

It’s all a part of the social decline which I think is affecting the younger generation all over the globe. A distain for rules and a very bad case of bad manners, we have it here too. If parents don’t teach their children how to behave in public or don’t set an example, the next choices are of course their peers

Brought up mainly by my grandparents until the age of 7, I can’t say that they were overly strict but they did install in me the moral values of things you can do and things that you don’t do in public.

It’s about time that parents got more involved in the lives of their children and at least make the effort to teach them adequate social skills, I hardly think that it should be left to their teachers.

There is nothing more appealing than obvious good manners and it costs nothing to prepare your kids for their future lives in the world.

AdLib
Admin

As a parent with a 6 year old, I have been and am around a lot of parents and what is indeed disappointing about some parents is their lack of resolve and/or maturity.

Some of them far too often defer to their little children, allowing them to misbehave and in doing so, passively endorse a selfish and inconsiderate sensibility.

Sometimes it’s out of exhaustion, sometimes out of wanting to be a “best friend” and not have their child mad at them and sometimes because they lose perspective that they are a parent who has both the control and duty to teach their child responsibility and other important traits so they will be a happy, successful and well-liked adult.

As with architecture, you can only build a stable structure on a solid base. If you don’t do that as a parent, you can’t complain later when your child leaves a shopping cart in your driveway next to your emptied wallet.

Questinia
Member

They should bring back the good old days when a little crushed Valium in their YooHoos kept them riiigghht on mommy’s schedule.

AdLib
Admin

Now that’s the real “Mother’s Little Helper”.

And the good thing with having kids is, if you run out of Valium you can always buy more from them.

Questinia
Member

Now THAT deserves a :rofl: !

AdLib
Admin

Gracias, Senorita!

Questinia
Member

Kids, these days! Kids, plain and simple. Not people, kids.

AdLib
Admin

Absolutely, kids!

And they’re always on my lawn no matter how much I yell at them in a crotchety John McCain way to get off of it.

And their crazy hair and that loud music too.

Why, I feel like shaking my fist in the air all morning, after my stomach settles down from that big bowl of Wheatina.

Questinia
Member

That would NEVER happen if instead of milk you used Haley’s MO.

AdLib
Admin

I thought that Milk of Magnesia was just milk that kept you from forgetting who you were.

Now I’m really confused…I need another tall frosty glass of Haleys!

Questinia
Member

Wheatena is a bitch, man.

AdLib
Admin

Can I tell ya somethin’? At least it ain’t Cream O’ Wheat.

AdLib
Admin

I’ve been asked to com-com-comment on your post by Local 49 of the Shopping Cart Return Efficiency Workers (SCREW) who respectfully take issue with your article.

They would like you to know that there is a huge industry dedicated to both the abandonment and return of shopping carts by professionals represented by their membership.

Your calling negative attention to their livelihoods jeopardizes their employment, it is the equivalent of a shopping cart with one squirrly wheel which squeaks loudly and spins around wildly.

The members of SCREW would appreciate your patience and tolerance of our completely unnecessary industry.

Questinia
Member

They work alongside the Please Return Integrity Coordinators (PRICS) who are responsible for interfacing public awareness and efficiency within the system.

AdLib
Admin

Which in turn work right in sync with Professionally Unionized Shopping Industry Engineers Society (PUSIES).

Questinia
Member

And don’t forget the clean up crew, the Sanitation Tackling Department (STD)

AdLib
Admin

I couldn’t forget them anymore than I could the Garbage Engineers Retirement Brigade of Illinois (GERBIL).

Questinia
Member

Led, of course by Secretary of the InGeresposterior

AdLib
Admin

Not only do I know that secretary, I know the Rear Admiral.

KQµårk 死神
Member

😆 I hope you don’t mind but I added a picture. The piece is very funny but the ironic part is it seems like there are dozens of websites devoted to abandoned shopping carts. Following is one that even has a video called the “cart whisperer”.

http://www.nomoreabandonedcarts.com/

My pet peeve with carts are the new plastic carts. At least with metal cats they would corrode after a while but these plastic carts will last forever in the environment, especially when it looks like lakes are rivers are these evil people’s favorite place to dispose of carts.

AdLib
Admin

Thanks for adding the pic KQ!

What bothers me about the plastic carts are the plastic babies left in the seat not corroding. What happened to good old fashioned lead baby dolls?