Bad hanicapped cust vs. nice handicapped cust

[mathnerd]

What sucks is that it's people like this who are responsible for a scene I saw in the mart of walls not terribly long ago. I was near the entrance waiting on somebody, and a young woman walked in and started to get a scooter. The police officer manning the door (this store was in a high crime area and the greeters were off-duty cops) very rudely approached the woman and told her she couldn't use the cart, as they were for "people who actually needed them." The young woman tried to explain that she did need it, but I never found out why because the asshole cop never let her finish a sentence. The woman wound up going getting off the cart and sitting on a bench while somebody (I'm presuming her husband) got their car and picked her up. The cop rolled his eyes at her and told her "lazy isn't a disability.

I was incensed. I have no idea why the young woman needed a scooter, but I had my guesses. She was pregnant, and could very well have been experiencing complications. She could have injured a leg. She could have had some other disorder that rendered her disabled when she wasn't pregnant. Who knows. I was livid enough to not only complain to the store management, but get his badge number and complain to his supervisor at the police station.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

While shopping at the Grocery Store of Awesome tonight, I noticed two people, who I assumed were husband and wife, rolling along on motorized scooters, along with a third person pushing a cart.

Cart was full of stuff, the baskets on the two scooters were also full. Who knows how big of a purchase that Wally World lost because Officer Friendly decided to play motorized cart police.

One more thing about those motorized carts--they're not built to be used outside. They're meant for indoor use, on smooth surfaces like tile and carpet. Not on a patched-up, pothole-ridden blacktop missile test site where Dodge Grand Caravans and Toyota Camrys battle for automotive supremacy.

Yes, riding the motorized cart outside can make it break down faster, and then there's no cart for anybody to use, because it's in the shop being fixed.

[Smapti]

At my store, we eventually welded giant steel poles onto the electric carts that stick up like a ship's mast so the carts can't clear the front door. Not because of weather, but because of two occasions on which customers decided they thought they were allowed to take the carts home with them.

On one occasion I had to drive one back to the store after a customer had ditched it at the bus stop half a mile away (which it takes 30 minutes to get to on the cart, for the record). The second time, our security guys drove out and intercepted a woman who'd driven twice as far as that, and when confronted tried to claim it was her personal property. (I'm sure the fact that it had our store logo on it was a coincidence.)

[sms001]

bus stop half a mile away (which it takes 30 minutes to get to on the cart, for the record).

Store carts go 1 mph. Good to know, for that future grocery heist get-away vehicle.

[raudf]

She was pregnant, and could very well have been experiencing complications.

I had to use the electric carts during the last part of my pregnancy. I couldn't walk very far without having so much difficulty breathing/trembling/sweats that I would nearly pass out. If this guy had argued with me, I'd have sat down on the bench, then sent my hubby to get a manager!

Thankfully, no one argued with me. Not even the little old lady who told me she'd wait, since it was very obvious I was having problems walking.

[RayvenQ]

Oh boy, charging mobility scooters, that reminds me of not so fun times.

See, the place i worked at rented out scooters, that you could literally rent all day (within business hours), some people used them temporarily, some a lot longer, longer really than they should be out in them.

The Rascal 3 wheelers and the slightly bigger 4 wheeler rascals, bit of a pain to push back to the shop, buy you get used to it. We also had one, that I dub "The Monster". See, The Monster wasn't just any ordinary scooter, it was the biggest scooter we had (seriously, this thing was fecking huge, google "large mobility scooter" and none of those come even close to the size of it, hell even googling "obesity mobility scooter" all those are small compared to The Monster)

Hell, I have a 1974 Honda CBS 125 motorbike and I swear even that isn't as heavy as that damn thing was, so of course, guess who got detailed to push it back 3 miles the one time it ran out of juice away from our center.

[wolfie]

A 3 mile push? I'm surprised the shop didn't have a utility trailer the scooters could be loaded onto. Customer needs a scooter at a particular location? Send the shuttle to deliver it, and pick it up at return time. Scooter breaks down? Send the shuttle for it. How would they have expected you to get the scooter back to the shop if, instead of running out of "juice", a tire had been punctured, or something in the drive train had seized up so it COULDN'T be pushed? It's a lot easier to wrestle a non-rolling scooter onto a trailer, and then off the trailer back at the shop, than to wrestle it for miles.

[Seshat]

One more thing about those motorized carts--they're not built to be used outside. They're meant for indoor use, on smooth surfaces like tile and carpet. Not on a patched-up, pothole-ridden blacktop missile test site where Dodge Grand Caravans and Toyota Camrys battle for automotive supremacy.

Whereas the sort of scooter I own IS designed to be driven outside. Oh, ideally on pavement, but it can manage (short) grass or dirt if it has to. Not sand, though. At one zoo, the disability ramp was accessed via a sand-covered area, and it was a real b--- to get to the ramp.

Anyway: if you want a scooter in the carpark, get your own.

[XCashier]

At one zoo, the disability ramp was accessed via a sand-covered area, and it was a real b--- to get to the ramp.

I remember you mentioning that a while ago, and I've seen it myself at another zoo. That is some seriously bad, "what were they thinking?!" design. Really makes you wonder...

[RayvenQ]

A 3 mile push? I'm surprised the shop didn't have a utility trailer the scooters could be loaded onto. Customer needs a scooter at a particular location? Send the shuttle to deliver it, and pick it up at return time. Scooter breaks down? Send the shuttle for it. How would they have expected you to get the scooter back to the shop if, instead of running out of "juice", a tire had been punctured, or something in the drive train had seized up so it COULDN'T be pushed? It's a lot easier to wrestle a non-rolling scooter onto a trailer, and then off the trailer back at the shop, than to wrestle it for miles.

It was a small charity, so we didnt have a ton of resources.

Even with a flat, while still difficult, it wouldnt be much harder than with the wheels not flat, we also had a guy who came in who worked on repairing scooters show us a few tricks of the trade to pretty much allow us to push it no matter what.

As for delivering and returning, these scooters were meant for getting around the particular town we were in, we were 5 minutes away from the bus station and had a car park, so either customers parked in our car park and came into the shop (or we drove the vehicles to their car depending on their mobility and how they were feeling) and they'd return it and get back in their cars. Or, if they were coming in at the bus station, they'd let us know, I'd drive the scooter to their stand in the bus station, let them have it and walk back to the shop, and then at the end of the day or whenever they went home, they'd come back, I'd walk with them to the bus station and then hop on and drive it back when they got their bus.

To be fair though, battery depletions were rare, only that once when I was there in the 6 months i was there and mechanical breakdowns didn't happen at all while i was there. the guy who did the repairs would constantly cycle through the scooters checking for faults and if he even suspected something, we took that one off the availibility list and replaced it with the spares we had (albeit blessedly few sapre ones)

[Jetfire]

At my store, we eventually welded giant steel poles onto the electric carts that stick up like a ship's mast so the carts can't clear the front door. Not because of weather, but because of two occasions on which customers decided they thought they were allowed to take the carts home with them.

So how many times a day do you hear a CLANG of someone trying to drive the cart out the doors?

[dalesys]

So how many times a day do you hear a CLANG of someone trying to drive the cart out the doors?

I'm getting a visual of some AK (alte kakker) trying to get enough speed to get through the doors with a store-brew JATO pack... A crate of 2L Diet Cokes on the back of the cart, pointed to the rear, plus Mentos.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Many people who use them forget they are responsible for plugging them back in when they are done.

I've run into that quite a few times . . . . have to leave Mom on the aisle (or wherever the cart has died at) go up front and, if I'm lucky, can find one without having to check both entrances, hop on another cart and unplug it and get it to wherever Mom is waiting, transfer the stuff she's already picked up in her baskset while she struggles to get herself into the other cart.


And by that time, I'M ready to go home and say "Hell with this crap!"

[emax4]

I recall shopping at the Mart of K and seeing a mobility scooter being driven by one teen in a group. After another teen got on I was so tempted to yell out loud, "HE CAN WALK!!! IT'S A MIRACLE!!!!", but I kept to myself.

[Pagan]

I want to know what he does if all the carts are being used. I'm guessing his solution would be kicking someone off of one.