Shopping Carts

I use shopping carts regularly, almost daily. You know shopping carts, they are excellent little machines to propel your selections through the store, to the check-out and ultimately to your car. The critical operation of the cart is to roll smoothly and if I had to guess I would say that probably a good 76% of the carts do exactly that. But there is that 24% that have a tendency to grip, pull to the left or right, or make a hideous screeching sound. I randomly select from the 24% about 82% of the time. Its not fair, you look carefully at the lines of carts available when you arrive at the store. You avoid the obvious bent wheels, the appearance of excessive rust, or the trash left in the bottom. You select a newer looking cart and try to release it from its brothers. The cart will not let go. You know from sad experience that a pulled shoulder muscle awaits if you persist. You go to your second choice, some rust, but you're hopeful. It clings at first but you continue to tug and, voila! Cart separation is achieved. You cautiously push your cart toward the aisles, so far, so good, no obvious pull or grip. You head toward the produce section and as soon as your cart touches the decorative tile floor of the fruit section, the squeal commences. Noooo. You checked, you did your due diligence, its not fair. The only thing to do is to commit to the failure. You push your vile squeeky cart through the store. You ignore the people staring at you. You dare a store employee to make eye contact with you(they won't I've tried). You take your time and slowly go through your shopping list, even backtracking for the hot dog buns you forgot. You pick the longest line for check-out and you take your purchases out to your car. You go the extra mile and take the afflicted cart to the buggy corral. Mission accomplished. Does your persistence pay off, does your suffering make you stronger? It must, it has to.