Good Lord!
Posted by Shaun Altman Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:38:00 GMT
Let me warn you up front: this is a bit of a rant. It isn't even a Second Life related rant. I hope that it is okay with all of you if I digress a little from time to time. :)
I snapped this picture in a grocery store parking lot a couple of hours ago. This is an all-too-common sight in parking lots across the country. There are cart return queues not even a TEN SECOND WALK from the parking spots in this photo, but these five people are apparently too important to bother using them.
I bet you're asking by now, "Is this seriously a blog post about SHOPPING CARTS?". Well, yes and no. :) More importantly, I'd like to drill down into the underlying social issue that is represented by the cart-litter in this photo: an attitude of entitlement.
What causes this attitude of entitlement amongst people? I would have liked to park in the spaces at the foreground of this photo. My inability to do so caused me to have to waste at least one minute of my life today; a minute that I can NEVER reclaim!
I'd be willing to wager that at least twenty other people who would have liked to park in one of these spaces wasted a minute right along with me before these carts were picked up. And how about the poor soul who's job it is to pick these carts up? I wonder how much productivity that person loses when he has to spend an extra 30 seconds per cart running around the parking lot picking these up. There's two minutes and thirty seconds of that poor person's day wasted JUST from the small amount of cart-litter in this lot that I could fit into a single picture frame.
So here are my questions: What makes these people so special? Why do they feel that they are entitled to waste 23.5 minutes of other peoples' lives, simply so they can leave a parking lot 20 seconds sooner? What gives them a right to make 22 peoples' day a little worse, just so they can shave 20 seconds off of their own? I'll bet that there are 1001 other examples of such a pervasive attitude of entitlement out there every day. This is just the one I happened to spot and photograph this afternoon. What examples can you think of?
In conclusion, I'd like to extend two great big middle fingers to the people who left these carts here, and to everyone else who does rude and inconsiderate things like this on a daily basis. NEWSFLASH! You are NOT entitled to waste the time and energy of countless others, simply to get your groceries home 20 seconds sooner. This is one, of no doubt a great many small examples, of how the world could be a slightly better place, if we were to all dedicate ONLY TWENTY SECONDS each day to considering the needs and desires of our fellow citizens.
I find funny that you're complaining about people feeling entitled to use a parking spot, and that the foundation of your arguement is that YOU feel like YOU are entitled to use the same parking space.
If that spot would have been available for you, it would have saved you 20 seconds of your life. When the spot was available though, FIVE PAYING CUSTOMERS, who spent enough money so as to require a rolling cart, and who were EACH there BEFORE YOU, used the convenience so they could EACH save 20 seconds of their lives.
So essentially, you feel that 20 seconds of your time is worth more than 100 seconds of paying customer time.
Bravo, bravo! Hell, I used to have this job at the 7/11 in Fairport, NY and then over at the Rite-Aid's and I'll tell you, it's a wonder I wasn't run over chasing those carts. It was endless. People are selfish.
I totally endorse what you are saying about the entitlement-happy freaks of our world.
It's hardly a sense of entitlement to expect to park at a frigging store. Parking spaces are supposed to be provided for customers of the store to park in -- der. It's up to the store to keep them available, so they waste their time and payroll on having workers chase the carts, but they could be fronting the merchandise and moving faster in the checkout line if the lazy asses of America would waddle out of their Suburban Attack Vehicles for 10 seconds and push the carts to the queues. I mean, my God, they make it even easier for you nowadays with those queues in the middle, it's not far to walk.
And I think this is totally on-topic for SL. People actually IM me and ask me to return all their prims for them from their parcel in SL as they hover above it because they don't feel like clicking TAKE, i.e. when they aren't moving, but just redecorating. Then, when some inevitably get lost, they scream at me. Could they spend 10 seconds on the TAKE and save their frigging sexgens for $45 US instead of making me hump the prims back to them???
@Prokofy; You're just trading one persons convenience for another's. If America would waddle out of their SUV's and take the bus to the grocery store or walk, they would be healthier, there'd be less traffic, less polution, and stores would be able to have much smaller parking lots, cheaper prices, and finally, there would be a LOT more room for people to leave their shopping carts. Most of America caters to motorists and their entitlement... (i.e. "i have a RIGHT to convenient parking"), but the rest of the world, including most large cities, don't work like that at all.
For some reason, Prok, I really believe you worked picking up shopping carts....
When I see those carts out there, I just bump em with my bumper to clear em out of the way. if the parking lot is open, they sometimes go on an good trajectory, but if the store doesn't police the lot up with mini-Proks, they've assumed liability for any damages. Hopefully they don't ding someone, but most cars are dingproof these days anyways. BTW: I put my shopping carts away.
It's not possible to waddle down a superhighway to a mall that is 15 miles from your suburban-tract home, hon, sorry. There isn't any such thing as "bus service" to malls. Huh? Are you European perhaps, and not familiar with the actualities of America? You need a car just to drive to the milk house in America most places.
And it's not an economy of scale to have lots of little shops like Europe that all close on Sundays and at 6 pm too, when they roll up the sidewalks. That's not how we roll here.
God Bless America, eh? The interstate highways system and the national parks system and fast food and rest stops that sprang up along with them brought America back from the Depression the the post-war economic slump. Developing countries will have to either follow this model, or figure out how to get trains built and running better.
Indeed, patrons of a giant supermarket out in the middle of nowhere off the highway do have to provide parking spaces, and the idiots who can't be bothered to push a card a few feet out of the way are what's wrong with this country.
I don't see why they as just-paid customers are entitled to greater rights than the about-to-pay customers. Indeed, if I go past Sam's Price Club and see it's a sea of carts, hey, I'm taking my business over to Wal-mart's, sorry, there it is.
Hey, Here in Brazil, there is a employee who takes your bags to your car and then take the cart away. Wonders of 3rd world! But anyway, the store should hire more workers to do the job, its their interest (and job) to keep the parking lot free.
Shaun, I just posted now (09/19) @10:53 UTC, but for some reason my post dates one day ago :P
HAHAHA, sorry, had a retard moment...
Indeed I really, truly worked picking up shopping carts.You have to when you work in mall stores. This was not my "only" job; I was a cashier and sandwich-maker and counter-cleaner, too. Not very glamorous, but I've always worked my entire life since the age of 15. Have you?
Those carts are out in the parking lots, and you have to bring them back precisely because they interfere with people's ability to park.
@Prokofy - No, I haven't, I didn't need to work at such early age because my parents could afford my education. As it should be. Now what's this fact or your personal life history have to do with the subject?
I try to put the cart I use away, or at least out of the way. Mainly because I agree, it's annoying to not be able to use a space because of a cart in it. I wouldn't want to have someone do it to me, so I don't feel right doing it to them. Plus I'm in a habit of leaving places better than I found them, if possible. Lots of times I'll pick up another cart and take it with me if I'm close to it.
Prok, I worked from age 15 onwards. My first job was in a small grocery store, where the owner had a sign on his office door that said "We would like to pay you what you are worth, but minimum wage laws make us pay you more."
I then worked managing an orchard, then into professional ski instructing and CAD work through college.
Kryss, Its now about having parents who can afford your education, its about whether your parents care to make you learn to be self responsible and develop a work ethic or not.
Your life must be pretty good then Shaun, bitching about shopping carts. What about those in the world that have no food or running water, or play a game of life and death everyday due to civil war.
Hi Apollo,
Interesting question, but a little off topic. To answer it, yes, my life has been okay thus far, all things considered. I am not what I would consider rich yet, but I am comfortable. And yes, I do share your concerns about those in the world who have no food or running water. In fact, I sponsor a couple of kids in third world countries through a charity called Children International. I know that it is not a lot, but it is what I can do, and CI tells me that it goes a long way. I agree that the situation is desperate in many parts of the world, and I think that everyone should do what they can. This doesn't change my feelings about shopping carts, though.