It used to be I'd secretly curse at the people who left their carts in parking lots. They'd force me to abandon a perfectly good parking spot or get out of my car to move the cart before pulling in to park.
And I'm sure there were just some plain, lazy people out there. But maybe there were people like me -- parents shopping with their kids.
I must admit that earlier this week I left my Wal-Mart cart in the parking lot and not in a cart corral or walked back to the store. It was the first time so long that has happened with me. Usually I try to park quite close to the shopping corrals. At Wegmans, if I have to park far away from either the corrals or the store, or the weather's too nasty, I ask for the drive-up service.
For a parent who often stops at the store alone with her child, there is no better thing than drive-up service. I've often been burned by thinking I don't need it only to find myself pushing a full cart of groceries with one hand and trying to hold a wiggling toddler in the other arm. It's not fun. So I've learned that unless things are going super well, drive-up is the way to go.
They take your cart. You take your child and a ticket number. You get your car, pull up in front of the store and present your ticket. The Helping Hands people will put your groceries in your car for you. I often get out to assist, and often think they should be tipped, but Wegmans doesn't allow that.
As for why I left my Wal-Mart cart in the lot, I was at the opposite end of the parking lot from the store. The cart corrals were WAY up toward the store (and there's only one pair, not two, in an aisle), it was cold and my little girl was fussy. So she was put in the car first and there was no way I was leaving her alone in the car, even if it was locked, while I walked halfway across the parking lot to return my cart. It just wasn't that important.
So while I still curse the lazy people out there, I find I must now think that some of those carts probably just belonged to parents who wanted to make sure their child was warm and safe.