Rise of the monster trolleys
HAVE you noticed how most of our biggest supermarkets these days have started holding back, not to say deliberately spiriting away their smaller shopping trolleys and only putting out their big ones, so aiding and abetting panic buying?
At one big, well known nationwide store I tried to use this morning there was a queue of a dozen or more people patiently waiting for a trolley to be returned.
Me? I borrowed a small one from another store close by, although I was warned, as I tried to enter, by a big bully boy supervisor I would not be allowed to go through their till when I had finished. (I got through without any trouble.)
The thinking behind the use of these monster trolleys is surely the hope we will all spend twice as much as we intended and in doing so, have to queue twice as long having only half the usual staff to serve us!
I’ve noticed some stores, particularly in the city centre, no longer even provide trolleys at all but point you towards their pull along baskets which I have found unsteady.
But isn’t anyone aware our oldies and in some cases, infirm shoppers rely quite heavily on the aforementioned trolleys to lean on.
I was the streets errand runner when I was a child and I loved it.
Pre-supermarkets, back in the not so distant past, shopping used to be a pleasure but not anymore.
Even the smallest corner shop back then thoughtfully provided a bentwood chair tucked in the corner for the use of the not so sprightly elderly customer, while the shopkeeper cut a chunk of cheese or weighed out half a pound of loose sugar Into a dark blue bag.
Old folk could buy say a single carrot or an ounce or two of cheese.
Now such foods come in family sized packs and end up in the waste bin.
Personally, I have noticed of late that simple seats to rest tired bones have vanished in the city and shopping mall.