Shopping in a cart

In an electric cart, that is, can be a challenge.  For the past year and more, I have had foot issues on top of other, longer standing problems that seem to be related to diabetes.  Walking was so difficult that, even if I could walk pretty well when I entered a store, by the time I was finished, I was crying with pain.  Combine that with low blood sugar, and pushing a shopping cart was just not gonna happen.  The first thing I check for these days is the availability of an electric shopping cart.

You can't believe how many large stores do not have these.  Of course, department stores generally don't anyway, but we (am I alone in this?) have come to expect that big grocery stores and "big box" stores like WalMart and Target will have them.  All too often, it seems to me, there are not enough of these carts.  My local Fiesta only has two for a large store with many food and non-food departments.  My local Sam's Club always seems to be "out." 

I'd like to see more stores have the carts in sufficient supply to meet the demands of the shoppers who want to spend their money in their store.  If it takes some research to figure out the right number, do the research.  If it costs to purchase more carts, use the buying power of your big ol' chain, and get some.  If not, you will lose my business.  I can't shop in your store if you won't accommodate my handicap.

Even when the stores do have the carts, they are not always charged up and ready.  The carts are left in the parking lot, and no employee has brought them in to the store to be recharged.  The carts are in the store, but unplugged.  Go in one door of the store and see that the employee guarding the door has no way to contact the employee at the other door to see if there is a cart available.  Enjoy the lack of concern by the employee/guard who has no clue where a cart might be and acts like he/she couldn't care less.  (Vow that if there were any other place within 20 miles to get that medication, you'd take your business there, while you struggle to walk to the pharmacy at the back of the store.)

I'd like to see more stores develop a cart management policy that parks the carts in a convenient location and assigns specific responsibility to specific employees to see that the carts get at least the minimum maintenance of a brief recharge between uses.  I'd like to see more stores train their employees about the needs of the handicapped to the point that they at least understand (and act like it) that persons with handicaps actually need their assistance.

This is not to say that I haven't seen some really wonderful helpfulness from chain store employees nor enjoyed a pleasant shopping experience with a fully charged and properly functioning electric cart.  I have.  Many times, many places--and sometimes even in the stores which strike me as the worst offenders for lack of availability, courtesy, or assistance.  However, it all just seems to be left up to the whims of individual employees to take care of handicapped customers and not to have any basis in store policy.  Or, if there is a store policy for this issue, it seems to be honored more in the breach than by its execution.