An Open Letter to the Maine Shopper Who I Watched Put Their Cart in the Cart Corral

Dear Person Who I Watched Put Their Cart in the Cart Corral,

I'm not sure if you are aware of some common courtesy that many people use when putting their shopping carts into the cart corral after they finish their shopping. I can understand if you don't, because just as many shoppers have a total disregard for the corral anyway. At least you were doing the right thing by putting it in the corral, but you were also doing it the wrong way.

Cart corrals are the best thing ever to happen in parking lots. One of my first jobs was as a bagger and cashier at Shop 'n Save, which we know today as Hannaford. Back then, carts never left the store. We loaded bags onto special carts that we wheeled out to customers' cars and loaded them up for them. When that practice stopped, the cart corral was born.

It makes it easy for those same baggers and other employees to go out and retrieve the cars. They're all in one place and can be brought back to the store by stacking them all up and pushing them back. The people that do that work hard, and it's nice to make things a little easier for them by putting the carts in the corral.

I give you kudos for at least putting it back on the corral, but was pushing it from your car across the parking lot into the corral necessary? Ever notice how shopping carts have squeaky wheels or that one wheel that won't stay pointed in one direction as you push it? By hurling your cart across the parking lot, you could have hit someone else's car with it if it didn't fly straight and true into the corral, which in this case, almost happened when it banged off the right plastic bumper.

Is it too much to just push the cart 20 feet across the parking lot to place it neatly in the corral and then walk the 20 feet back to your car? It will take you 30 seconds at most, and you won't damage anyone's care in the process.

The hard-working people who retrieve these carts would thank everyone if they simply wheeled their cart back and stacked it as best they could in the corral.

Thanks!