HEY I need that!!!

[Willis]

Just got back from the grocery store and saw this in the SCO line. This guy was a tool and sucky. He certainly put on a hell of a catbutt face and hostile attitude.

This old guy, who looked to be in his 70's, was checking out at the SCO closest to the beginning of the line where the rest of us were waiting for a stand to open up. All his stuff was on the check stand or bagged already. A lady comes up and tries to take his empty cart since there were none left.

Lady starts putting some of her stuff in the cart and gets ready to continue shopping.

OG - Old Guy
NL - Nice lady

OG - *Glares over* Hey I need that!
NL - Oh? I'm sorry. Are you using this? *points to hand basket*
OG - I might.
*Me thinking wait what? This guy literally had 5 items tops that you could put in your damn pocket. After you paid of course.*
NL - Are you sure?
OG - *looks over at hand basket* I don't need that.
NL - Okay.

She takes the hand basket and goes on her way.

The old guy leaves with a big ole shopping cart with two bags with about 5 small items. That probably weighed less than a 1lb total. I mean by looking at his bags you'd think they were empty.

Really? The way he glared at her it was like he felt she was stealing something from him. My guess is that he just didn't want her to have the cart. Some people spend too much time on trivial stuff like that.

[PepperElf]

I dunno... even though I'm finished with it, I would hope someone would at least be nice and ASK first before snatching the cart away.

[bhskittykatt]

I agree with PepperElf. While it would have been nice if the guy had let the woman take the cart, the woman should have asked first. There's some suck here on both sides.

[ArcticChicken]

Honestly, I wouldn't have let her have it either. If she'd asked, yeah, no problem, but if she just walked up and snatched it I wouldn't have let her take it.

[Willis]

Yea I was thinking what you guys were too. The lady seemed so nice about it though The guy on the other hand acted as if he had a ton of groceries to haul out when he had really empty bags. It just seemed like he took it too personally. The conversation between them was really short just like I posted and almost word for word. If he had a lot of groceries I can see where he might be a bit annoyed. It was the fact that he made a deal of the hand basket too.

[ohsobitter]

He might have needed it for balance too. I see a lot of elderly people around here leave their walkers and use a cart instead.

[Willis]

He might have needed it for balance too. I see a lot of elderly people around here leave their walkers and use a cart instead.

Good point. He did seem a bit slow moving. By the time I finished with my 2 items he was still heading towards the door. Like I said though the part about the hand basket made it seem wtf'ish to me. He probably wasn't really paying attention

[greek_jester]

It seems like this is a bit of six of one, half a dozen of the other.

The lady (while she seemed nice enough) shouldn't have taken the trolley without asking. Since he was quite old, he could have been relying on it for balance (my mum does this, she has a dodgy hip & leans on the trolley all the way around so that she doesn't have to get a scooter).

On the other hand, he didn't have to be so short about it, nor did he have to make an issue over her taking the basket instead.

[Willis]

On the other hand, he didn't have to be so short about it, nor did he have to make an issue over her taking the basket instead.

Yea that was the main thing. What was he going to do with the hand basket and he was checking out? Absolutely nothing. The other part yea I can understand she should've asked first about the cart. I mean he was very short with her and just made a humongous deal even when the lady said ok sorry and then asked about the hand basket. If I was his age I probably would have told him to stfu. That's how out or proportion he made it. I mean if he had to use it for balance, how did he get in the store in the first place? He didn't have a cane or anything. Either way he probably struggled on the way in or found it in the parking lot. You can't take carts away from the property either because there's a lock strip underneath the pavement.

Growing up my mom used to always tell me "kind words turn away anger, harsh words only stir up wrath." He could've been much nicer about it and gotten the same outcome.

[bainsidhe]

*shrugs* People get bent out of shape over the silliest of things, although cart-nappers will cheese anyone off. I've had people try to take an empty cart out of my grasp because they assumed I wasn't using it. They usually back off pretty quickly at my WTF face, but still.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I had a few cart-nappers at the wholesale club when I worked there.

The worst case was on a busy Sunday.

Normally at the club, the cashiers had an empty cart at their register. Customers would walk up with their items in their cart, empty their cart, I would ring them up and put their items into my empty cart. They pay, take the now-not-empty cart, and I replace it with their formerly-full-cart.

This particular day, customers would come up and take the empty cart before I had a chance to stop them, often without asking. Though if they asked, we had to say yes.

This one guy, though, didn't even ask. He started to take my empty, while I was in mid-ring. Literally, inches away from putting something in the cart.

J2K: "Excuse me, I need that cart."
SC: "Use the cart they came up with."
J2K: "That IS the cart they came up with."
SC: "..."
J2K: "..."
SC: "Can I take it anyway?"
J2K: "No. There should be empty carts in the parking lot if there aren't any up by the front door."
SC: "That's too far to walk!"
J2K: "Sorry, but you can't take that cart."