Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Shopping for Dents?

Don't you hate it when people leave shopping carts in the parking lot because they are too lazy, inconsiderate or in too big of hurry to return them to the cart corrals?! Once when I was in college, I went to Wal-Mart with my friend Ryan and witnessed a lady not just leave her cart, but unintentionally push it into the car parked beside her. I was so blown away that I immediately ran over there and confronted her. I told her that I would take her cart for her this time, but that I was very disappointed in the lack of character she displayed by discarding the cart so inappropriately. Ryan thought it was hilarious, but I was dead serious and I'm glad that's all I said to the lady.

Last Monday, Jennifer, my wife was sick, so I went to Kroger to pick up the typical supplies: chicken noodle soup, Gatorade, NyQuil, DayQuil, toilet paper (ha), etc. When I got there I noticed an inordinate number of shopping carts poised to wreak havoc on the cars in the lot. It was cold and windy, so I assume people were trying to get out of the elements ASAP and that's why so many were left unattended. Also, it would make sense that whoever Kroger pays to round up the carts was slacking for the same reasons.

The kindness task was obvious. On my way into the store, I collected the two carts along my path and parked them inside. Yay for me and yay for building kindness! While I was busy patting myself on the back I thought about how and what I would say on my blog about the carts... and then it hit me. Each day I'm trying to go out of my way to do something kind, and collecting two carts from directly in front of me didn't require extra effort. That's something I probably would have done w/o this new found mission.

From what I saw when I pulled in, there were probably another 10 carts out there that needed moving. So, I bought my stuff and headed back out to get the rest of the carts. I ended up moving 12 more before I left for home.

For those of you from the South: a shopping cart is the same thing as a buggy. Sorry for the confusion. ;D

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