The Cart

As much as I enjoy the fresh air, the exercise, the friendly banter with customers, and the great group of people I toil with as a Utility Worker, all is not “sunshine and roses” in the world of cart recovery. Before I dived in completely to this kind of employment, my radar didn’t even bleep when I saw carts or the workers that move them.

 For the most part, Utility Workers are invisible unless someone needs a cart, or assistance to their car. You can believe that now when I go to a store that the condition of their shopping carts is the first thing I notice. (I can’t help it.)

I am extremely appreciative of well-trained customers that make a habit of returning their shopping cart to the closest cart corral; it really does make the working life of people like me much easier. What is not a blessing to me is the places people put their carts like in the out reaches of the parking lot blocking a useable parking space (for others), in the direction of where other carts are thus blocking the path for a Utility Worker to either retrieve (or install new carts) in the desired location.

In the world of “push and shove” some things will never make sense to me no matter how many times they are rearranged in my head. First of all, my body (at this stage of my life) will never be able to maneuver as quickly and efficiently as a college age co-worker.

Though the following may be direct and sound reasonable to the average person: “Quickly pull shopping carts from the parking lot to fill the inside cart corral. We are running extremely low. Do not use the carts up against the front wall.” Both of those statements seem confusing and contradictory for the following explanation. Though I can get my job done efficiently, my movement speed, tends to be slightly faster than the speed of a running tortoise. Having retrieving carts from the asphalt will not be a speedy process. Pulling them from the front wall ensures I can refurbish the cart supply for customer use. Does this make any sense?

 Remember, if you have the time to push a cart somewhere in an odd place in the interior or exterior of the store where it should not go, make the effort to go the rest of the way to putting it in the right place and cart direction. As Carol Burnett used to sing at the end of her variety show, “I’m so glad we had this time together…” Now you know. So the next time you go shopping, remember the person who made your cart available, and show them your appreciation for all their hard work. It will put a smile on a Utility Worker’s face