Simple Rules For Supermarket Civility
Anyone else weary of corruption, politics and the culture wars?
Yeah, me too.
Let’s talk about something a little lighter today: The end of civilization.
I thought about this early last week when I ran to the grocery store for a single item. As I pulled into the parking lot I saw a young woman - 30-something - dressed in workout gear with her hair pulled into a pony tail heading toward her car. Once there, she loaded her bags into the back of her SUV, opened the driver’s door, slid in and carefully backed out around the shopping cart she stranded.
I glared as this self-absorbed jerk drove off.
“Philistine!” I muttered under my breath.
I retrieved her cart and pushed it into the store.
But sweet serendipity, a day later this video went viral:
Are you kidding me? This entitled mother of two, ages 3 and 7, thinks having kids excuses her from the most basic act of decency we are all expected to do?
I had two kids, 17 months apart. I dragged both of them to the supermarket countless times, in all kinds of weather. They were not the best behaved humans, either.
Returning the cart to the corral was the easiest part of our shopping excursions. I belted them into their car seats, put the bags in the trunk and walked the 20 feet or so to the cart return.
I never worried about them being kidnapped because I’m not insane.
Plus, as an English major I’d read “The Ransom of Red Chief.”
Just as making your bed in the morning is a sign that you’re a person who gets things done, and just as not leaving dirty dishes in the sink at night is a sign that you value a clean house, returning a grocery cart is a sign of a good citizen. You care about a tidy parking lot. You want to protect a stranger’s car from your out-of-control rolling cart.
You also know that a parking lot full of scattered carts is a sign of a bad neighborhood. Don’t shop there.
The author of this is correct. There is no law making you return your cart. It is something we do because instinctively we know it’s the right thing to do.
Oh and by the way, there are other unwritten rules of supermarket civility:
One: Always offer to return another person’s cart, especially if they’re elderly or a mom with a baby.
Two: If you have an overflowing basket of groceries and the person behind you is juggling a handful, let them go in front of you. Insist if they demur.
Three: Do not talk on your phone while you’re paying for your groceries. The cashier is a person. Exchange pleasantries. Learn a bit about that worker. When I was a columnist I got some of my best story ideas from checkout clerks. The things they see!
Remember, someone once said, “I don’t know any successful people who don’t return their grocery carts.”
Neither do I.
