Shopping Cart Syndrome

What is it that causes people to park their shopping cart in the middle of the aisle, while they wander up and down looking at things? When you come up to their one person traffic jam, quite often they don’t even notice you standing there, waiting for them to move their cart.

Occasionally, you will have a grown adult look at you with wide eyes and say, “I’m sorry!” while they back their cart off to the side. Is this the first time they’ve ever done this?  Haven’t they learned how to watch out for other people?

It’s my theory, that everyone is in their own little world, now. I-pods, I-phones, head phones, smart phones, dumb phones, media overload, down time, “Me Time”, TV, DVD, HDTV, and the like have all turned us into non thinking, non caring robots.  It’s been a few generations since people went out of their way to help others.

The most common occurrence of this syndrome, and the reason for this post, is when I watch people on my cave tours walk to the top of a set of stairs, and when they get to the top, they stop. They stand right on the edge of the landing, looking around, panting.

Just once, I’d like to see someone coming up from the steps “bounce” off of the offender, and start a domino chain reaction of people falling back down the steps.

No broken bones, no bruises, just a lot of screaming and yelling.

Instead, like clockwork, I have to say to them, “Please, move over so others can get up the stairs.”

I wonder what it would be like if everyone was pushing shopping carts up the cave stairs?