In an age when complexity holds sway, it is rare to find anything that can be easy, helpful, simple and kindly -- a happy home run.
When shopping in stores it can be handy to use a cart provided near the entry. In addition to holding the items for purchase it affords a steadying help. A recent knee-twist combined with age and weight led to start using a cart from outside the store; especially when bringing reusable bags and containers for refill.
Have noticed that I was not alone with mild injury, aging or extra weight (natural or self-inflicted). And as colder weather brings the months of icing, a stabilizing and supporting cart becomes more helpful to avoid slipping and sliding.
Often it has been necessary to drive the store perimeter to find a corral that would have at least one of these shopping utility vehicles (SUVs) as they had all been removed by store staff. I can readily appreciate their diligence in retrieving the stray cart left outside the corral that can slip or slide with slope or wind into our parked vehicles.
It may take another look by better managers to consider that an available cart in an outside corral would be a welcoming gesture and more an asset than a liability. As online outlets offer more convenience to customers, brick-and-mortar stores will need to re-examine and re-think previous plans and policies.
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The simple step of leaving a cart in the corrals could please and bring ease to customers, add greater use of reusables and lessen the demand for handicapped spots that can seem to be less available to the more disabled.
Customers can support stores that strive in getting to these better and safer places.
Philip Vaughan
Lake Edward Township
