Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Complaint

Okay, someone thought they had a good idea. The wheels on the grocery carts here all swivel. Perhaps you haven't noticed the swiveling pattern on the grocery carts, but if I remember correctly, in the US only the front wheels swivel, and the back two must follow. Sometimes this makes getting around the corner with a full cart tricky. So it seems like all the wheels being able to turn in every direction would be helpful, doesn't it? Perhaps if the cart was perfectly balanced or something, it might be good. Perhaps I have just had the one bad cart in the store every time I've shopped in China.

I don't think so.

I think every wheel on a grocery cart swiveling is a Bad Idea. It means that the cart is extremely unruly, almost as if it has a mind of its own. It isn't so bad at the beginning, when the cart is light. Then you can push it any which way you like, and you start the shopping trip very hopeful, hopeful that this time you've got it down. You have mastered the funky Chinese shopping carts, and this time everything will go just fine. But as the cart gets fuller, the wild wheels, each wanting to swivel their own way, get worse. By the end, you are convinced that you have ruined every joint in your legs for life, with all the gripping and straining to pull the cart back the way it should go. At some point, you think maybe pulling the cart might work better... but it doesn't.

There is No Good Way to make these carts behave. And when you are fruitlessly hunting up and down the aisles, retracing your steps a multitude of times to find that one thing you need, like kitchen garbage bags, it is so very tiresome to try to keep that cart under control.

If only you could ask someone where the garbage bags are located in the store, then maybe you wouldn't feel so frustrated with your unruly cart, because then you could go to the right aisle and not wander aimlessly.

But that's not an option either, when you don't speak the language.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They often say " it's not the mountain you climb that wears you out but the grain of sand in your shoe" A.C.

park it said...

Here is an idea - as you purchase things that you will need over and over - cut the cardboard front off of the product - then carry the piece of cardboard with you - until you have gone enough to know where things are - or a picture of a can of beans etc...(saw that idea on some blog)
Hope you are staying dry
Carol & Kimberly

Mary and Justin said...

Lynne, that's totally how the carts are here in Germany too, and they're very frustrating to control! However with just 2 of us we rarely fill a cart when shopping (despite how much Justin eats:)

Anonymous said...

Lynne, I could feel your frustration as I read your post. That DOES sound like a great challenge! Tamara