Cart complaint

To the editor:

This problem may be just a grain of sand on the beach of life, given the state of this world, but I just returned from yet another store where in order to disengage a shopping cart from about 30 of them all jammed together, I had to tug violently at two of them with another customer, each of us at either end of the stuck-together baskets, as though we were engaged in a tug of war. We managed each to get one loose, but not without getting my finger jammed in the process. I am watching the knuckle swell as I type this letter and I fully expect to lose my fingernail.

Almost daily at whatever type of store, I have found carts so tightly forced together that it is only after about five physically taxing tries that I manage to find one that frees itself from its captive companions (and inevitably that’s the cart that only makes left turns).

This time, I took up the matter with a store manager who listened politely and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing, probably rolling his eyes to the ceiling after I quit bothering him. This was despite the “greeter” at that store who was standing there doing nothing, and who could have employed his time productively by separating the baskets for the customers. Perhaps store owners who provide shopping carts would consider giving a gift to their customers at this festive time of year by making life a bit easier in this respect.