Supermarket Censure

 

Have you ever just wanted to complain about something? I sure have. Does it give you a sense of validation and solidarity to join with fellow complainers and just vent? 

Why do people do this thing? It just drives me nuts!

Yeah, I get it. And I’ve surely done it.

But I wandered into one such complaint-fest in a local Reddit community recently and something about it made me stop and think. 

The premise: some people take grocery carts away from the store and don’t return them. Worse than that, they ditch them any old place. 

I think everyone in the thread agreed that it would be better if people didn’t take the grocery carts away from the store and that it was maddening to find them in places they didn’t belong. 

But the automatic next step was, basically, “What is wrong with those people???” That bugged me. 

So I asked:

What would be a good way to support customers without cars to be able to get multiple bags of heavy groceries home? Ideas?

The response I got was polite enough, but dismissive.

But what if they *do* need support? What if we chose to look at it in a different way? I agree it's a problem. But somehow it has become a solution for something that we don't experience.

Again, response was a big “nah.”

Basically - - this isn't a new problem. It happens in many places under specific conditions. All I am suggesting is that it might be worth looking at in a different way. It's possible that a viable solution exists. Our being frustrated or judgmental isn't fixing anything. Just a thought.

Response was along the lines of  “If you can walk it away you can walk it back.”

Overall, the consensus was that the people being discussed had a lack of common decency.

No one wanted to engage on the concept that this behavior comes from a need. That need isn’t being met. We could, if we decided to, examine new ways to meet that need. 

I wonder why. Is it because 1) it’s more fun to complain or that 2) we don’t value the needs of “those people.” Does it come down to the fact that we don’t consider them to be legitimate needs?

I went looking for more information on this topic and so far my research has only made me scratch my head and laugh.

Neighbors want to know why shopping carts are being left around downtown, WTOC, Savannah

Hard hitting investigative piece, this. “WTOC investigates: Asked. Answered.”

I watched the entire thing. They honestly never ask, nor do they answer why shopping carts are being left around town. My high school English teachers would like a word. 

Have you ever heard of desire paths? 

Desire paths, as the name indicates, are informal pathways created by pedestrians, bikers, and animals that carve out routes considered more desirable to travelers.

Oftentimes, these paths are shortcuts or easier routes than the paved routes in place. Desire paths can be seen cutting across fields, through lawns, and around buildings.

The path from Point A to Point B looks very different in the office of a landscape architect or an urban planner than it does on the ground. Despite best intentions, the built environment doesn’t always fit the needs of the people it’s meant to serve. - - Elizabeth Borneman, Urban Geography 

Can you imagine if we treated people who ventured off the sidewalk to cut across the grass with the same disapprobation as the folks with the shopping carts? We absolutely could. But we don’t. Imagine the investigative news pieces.

Neighbors want to know why people are cutting across the grass around downtown.

It’s thoughtless.

Careless.

Damages the grass.

Unsightly.

Lowers the tone of the neighborhood.

But, as Elizabeth Borneman states: Despite best intentions, the built environment doesn’t always fit the needs of the people it’s meant to serve.

Everyone who shops at a grocery store is a paying customer. No matter who they are, where they live, or how they get home with their groceries - - they are “the people whose needs should be served.” But we don’t experience “those” lives or “those” needs. So we see ourselves as the norm and see any other behavior as deviant. 

We could choose to do something different. But, honestly, we just don’t value their needs. The businesses don’t value their needs.

If you want to see how creative businesses can get with shopping carts, take a look at this from CBS Sunday Morning. 

A new generation of shopping cart with GPS and AI, CBS Sunday Morning, 2024

Wow. They can do that but they can’t figure out how to meet the needs of car-less shoppers?

Talk about a lack of common decency.

Village Green/Town² Comments