Again on electric scooters

[notalwaysright]

Single and live alone here! I have devised various ways to deal with heavy things. Mostly it involves what another has already mentioned, taking stuff apart until the individual pieces are light enough. Sometimes it involves pulling or shoving stuff along the ground. So yeah, I might ask for help getting something into my car. Only because I doubt they want me standing in their exit dissecting boxes. I tend to get a lot of things delivered. I also have those "as seen on tv" slider things. I have moved hugely heavy bookshelves with them.

[wolfie]

I'm single, so I can't ever buy anything I can't lift.

I assume you don't own a car.

[jedimaster91]

I'd like to see what happens when someone who needs assistance to get the intact 45 lb box into their car gets home - how does someone who DIDN'T plan ahead get the box that was too big for them to handle at the store OUT of their car and into their home?

I make my husband do it. Though my front door is way closer to my driveway than the distance between the store and wherever I may have parked in the lot. I can usually manage long enough to get inside. With the stuff I can't lift, I usually have him with me anyway.

Some days I wish I could use one of those scooters. I'm around 5 months pregnant. People who know about it say they can tell, but it's still not super obvious. My energy reserves are extremely limited some days. I've also had really bad morning sickness and have gotten dizzy and nauseous without warning. But there are people worse off than me so I leave the scooters for them. That may change in a few months when I'm bigger and more miserable.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I'm around 5 months pregnant....My energy reserves are extremely limited some days. I've also had really bad morning sickness and have gotten dizzy and nauseous without warning... That may change in a few months when I'm bigger and more miserable.

I was the same way at that stage and then when I got to seven months, and a lot bigger, I was ..... fine. Still napped daily, but a lot less tired, a lot more able to do things again. Walking would take me longer, but I started feeling way better. Here's hoping you experience a similar uptick as you get further along.

[Estil]

Electric scooters, certainly a pet peeve of mine. I know there are some out there who need to use them, but others who use them for enjoyment.

Today, at Wally World, I saw one of these people who bolted out of one when it came time to scan his coupons. Then, he rode out of the store, went to the nearby curb, and walked to his car, leaving the scooter in the middle of the parking lot for someone to run over, all while walking normally.

I know what people are thinking. How do I know this guy isn't handicapped? Well, I don't know, but this guy did seem to have the strength to hurriedly get up for his coupons, then was able to walk normally to his car. Why couldn't this guy at least walk normally to his car from the entrance, or at least park the scooter outside out of harm's way?

I know I've said this before way too many times but I think people who use the scooters/wheelchairs when they don't really need them are making a mockery of the disabled/handicapped.

[Pagan]

Single and live alone here!

Me, too.

When we were over in Gallup for the Rt. 66 Freedom Ride, Flight, and Cruise last summer, my pilot got mad at me for lifting a pretty much empty cooler by myself. I asked him how he expected I got cases of water, Gatorade, etc. into my apartment.

What's funny is that he didn't (doesn't) have an issue with me lifting the 50 lbs burners, or portions of the several hundred pound envelope, or holding the throat down on the envelope when it's rockin' and rollin' on inflation sometimes...

[WishfulSpirit]

Scooters and wheelchairs are a pain in the ass. Nobody who didn't need it would use one unless they were cheating workmans comp. Being lazy isn't a good enough reason to put up with slow speed, shocks, and nasty comments.

[Sapphire Silk]

I know I've said this before way too many times but I think people who use the scooters/wheelchairs when they don't really need them are making a mockery of the disabled/handicapped.

I couldn't agree more, but sometimes it's hard to tell just by looking at someone. EE gave a great example. I've gone shopping with her often enough to know that sometimes she's fine going into a store, and barely mobile coming out.

It was comical when she had a bad fibro day when I was still dealing with my broken foot. Anyone who didn't know us might have thought we were goofing off and taking carts away from people who "needed" them.

Well, we were goofing off (if you don't laugh you will cry), but we both really did need them. Neither of us was capable of walking any kind of distance at that particular time.

[fantasticchelsea]

I know I've said this before way too many times but I think people who use the scooters/wheelchairs when they don't really need them are making a mockery of the disabled/handicapped.

I agree. You never know what someone is going through. I really don't judge until, you know, you start a shampoo fight in the aisles. xD

[Food Lady]

Single and live alone here! I have devised various ways to deal with heavy things. Mostly it involves what another has already mentioned, taking stuff apart until the individual pieces are light enough. Sometimes it involves pulling or shoving stuff along the ground. So yeah, I might ask for help getting something into my car. Only because I doubt they want me standing in their exit dissecting boxes. I tend to get a lot of things delivered. I also have those "as seen on tv" slider things. I have moved hugely heavy bookshelves with them.

Fortunately I can take stuff apart, too, but pulling or shoving stuff also puts too much stress on my neck. Plus, I live upstairs. Maybe I need a pulley hanging off my balcony?

wolfie,LOL Fortunately I never have to lift my vehicle.

[Smapti]

At my store, we had so many problems in our first year of business with customers abandoning the scooters in the parking lot or just plain trying to abscond with them. Most notably was one occasion on which a customer drove the dang thing almost a mile from the store to their bus stop and abandoned it at the stop. The bus driver was kind enough to call our store and tell us we had an abandoned scooter at the bus stop. Guess who got driven out to the bus stop, at 9 PM on a December night in the middle of the ghetto, to pilot that scooter back onto company property? This guy. (My manager was kind enough to inform me that I was free to get up and run away if anyone tried to mug me.) It took exactly 40 minutes for me to get back to the store on that thing, during which time a panhandler confused me for a paraplegic and I discovered that the green light at the intersection leading into our parking lot is not actually long enough for one of our scooters to cross it at full speed.

After that happened a couple times, our store manager was able to convince the Powers That Be to let him weld a big metal bar onto the front of each scooter, which sticks straight up like a ship's mast, so that the scooters are now physically incapable of being driven out the front door of the store. To this day, I can't help but smile every time I hear that characteristic CLANG! that means someone has tried to drive the scooter out the door and been stopped cold.

[EvilEmpryss]

I absolutely LOVE those metal bars! Honestly, there is no reason that doesn't involve laziness for someone to drive the carts out to the car. I'll admit to being that lazy on occasion, but I still bring the bloody thing back inside if I do.

But if there's an 8-foot-plus pole stuck to the blasted machine, how can anyone think it will go through the door? Talk about dumb!

[raudf]

Do what I did when I couldn't walk from the shop door to my car. Have the someone else drive the car up to the door and load while you get your butt out of the cart and into the car. 8 months pregnant, supposedly on reduced activity, all because my body hated being pregnant and my blood pressure was high. I only drove it far enough out the door that it could be easily unloaded and my oldest would drive it back onto the store and plug it up.

I only got one fat comment at the time and my response was rather nasty, "I'm 8 months pregnant, high blood pressure and serious fluid retention that comes with it. At least when the baby's born, this will all go away, unlike your attitude."

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I absolutely LOVE those metal bars! Honestly, there is no reason that doesn't involve laziness for someone to drive the carts out to the car. I'll admit to being that lazy on occasion, but I still bring the bloody thing back inside if I do.

But if there's an 8-foot-plus pole stuck to the blasted machine, how can anyone think it will go through the door? Talk about dumb!

Actually, I'm not physically able to get my 300+ lb mom INTO the store w/out a scooter. Her left leg simply will not hold up long enough for her to walk a few steps w/out buckling and she has fallen a few times b/c of it as well (fortunately, not anywhere public.)

One of these days, we'll have a vehicle large enough to accommodate a lift to connect to the back to carry her electric chair - otherwise until then it's rely on SCAT transport (which you have to call 24 hours in advance to make a reservation and then it's only to places within the city limits) or shop at places we know have the scooters available and we can take them to the parking lot (such as Wallyworld.)

And yes, those things are a life saver at times - I've used them a couple of times when my sciatica and stenosis have acted up so bad I could barely walk w/out feeling like my leg was just going to give way and throw me into the floor. (and I had a coworker who lived w/Fibro - and she had days similar to what EE describes.)

Now if the stores that insist on keeping their chairs indoors have a contigency plan, such as sending an employee out w/a scooter to the person in need who cannot walk inside to get one, that would be great. But if not, then we have to shop elsewhere at the time or come back when we can travel by transport van.

[EvilEmpryss]

Actually, I'm not physically able to get my 300+ lb mom INTO the store w/out a scooter. Her left leg simply will not hold up long enough for her to walk a few steps w/out buckling and she has fallen a few times b/c of it as well (fortunately, not anywhere public.)

I stand corrected.