Scooter Cart Suckiness

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Ok, another Walmart sighting.

My wife has had knee surgery 20 years ago and it's starting to give her problems again. She's had a corrective procedure and it's working...but it takes time for it to fully work if it's going to work at all.

So she needs one of the motorized shopping cart/scooter things occasionally.

In this case, she didn't even need the thing for her knee, but for her ankle she borked somehow. It's so bad that we had it bandaged and she was walking on crutches.

So we go into WalMart and we get the last cart they have for my wife. As we're wandering around the store I hear some woman pissing and moaning about some other woman on a scooter. She complained "Why in the hell does she need a scooter? Her leg looks fine. Damnit I needed that cart." Hearing that I look over and indeed her one leg does look hale and healthy.

Her one (1) leg...as in she doesn't have a second one. For the other leg, she has a 6 inch stump below the hip.

The woman who "needed" the cart was a larger woman, but isn't any larger than my wife is and certainly had enough ability to walk on her own judging by the way she literally ran past us to harass the manager about the one legged woman in the cart.

Yes, ran...as in what nerds do when the Comic Book Stores finally get in the limited edition Xena action figure signed by Lucy Lawless herself.

More shopping and I hear some women having a screaming match with the manager. It turns out that another woman who doesn't seem to be having much problems walking on her own, demanding that a very pregnant woman give up her scooter to her.

Even though it's not a scooter with a full basket like the ones the store owns, is factory painted a nice blue-glitter finish (unlike Walmart Grey the others are colored) and has bumper stickers all over it.

Clearly the woman's personal cart that she OWNS and is not borrowed from the store.

Sadly I didn't get to see how it ended, but I imaging that the woman demanding that the pregnant woman give it up (and I mean VERY pregnant...she looked like she might have been carrying twins) was very disappointed and will never shop at Walmart again...between now and the next time she needs something.

So we finish shopping and I leave my wife on the curb to get the van and pick her up. She gets in the van, I load the groceries and I drive the cart back. I drive the cart a total of 20 feet to get it back to it's recharging station so I can plug it in for the next person. To which I hear.

"Well why the fuck do you need the cart?"

Now this person walked past me and my wife, was accidentally hit in the leg from her crutches as she got up and saw her get into the van and me drive it back into the store.

Keep it up people and one of these days you'll piss off someone who'll make goddamn sure you'll really need one of the carts in the future.

Won't be me doing it, but if I see it...don't expect me to help you. I'll be too busy recording it for some reality show on TruTV and trying to make some money off you getting curb-stomped.

M

[Gerrinson]

While I never used the scooters (could have, but I moved faster than the scooters with my cane) I did often get a similar response when I parked in handicapped spots. Since I was only 18 at the time, of course I couldn't possibly need to park there. And, really, the state hands out those handicapped license platese to just anybody. It's not like you need proof that you require it... Idiots.

To be honest, though, if I saw someone acting like the people in your post (I avoid Wal-Mart like the plague most of the time) I would probably (verbally) come to the defense of the person using the scooter. Maybe I just hit my quota of unempathic douchewaffleness and now have to send the overflow back to where it came from.

[Bramblerose]

this is why I tend to have my surgery scars obvious or try to hang onto my crutches when I used a cart (I think I can manage a full trip on my own feet now).

The other reason you take your sticks on teh scooter- it's difficult to impossible to get teh stupid scooter into teh bathroom!

[hopie144]

Speaking of WalMart (which i hate going to btw)- went there on Friday afternoon ( i know, i know..but we were going camping and needed supplies) and of course people won't get outta the way inside the store. We were heading toward the checkout, and 4 or 5 people were in front of me, going slower than a turtle in peanut butter, wouldn't move over, and saw someone they apparently haven't seen in 99 years, by their excited greetings. The lady directly in front of me just stopped and started talking, but I kept pushing my cart towards her, and wouldn't have stopped either, I was pretty irritated by then- and she finally got the hint and moved her cart over about 5 inches for me to get by.

On the way out, I was walking out the EXIT door, and some people were coming in, I didn't move out of the way, and I looked straight at them and told them they were coming in the wrong way. The guy just looked at me like I was speaking Alien. So then I said 'this is the EXIT not the ENTRANCE.' He finally got the hint when I almost ran over him.

Sorry about the threadjack, but people irritate me when it comes to WalMart. More than 5 minutes in that place, and you'll go crazy.

I've never used one of those electric carts, but I think only people who really need them, like your wife, should use them. Some people are SO entitled, they should've been born a king or queen. Seriously.

[RayvenQ]

Should have seen some of the filthy looks I got from people the time I rode scooters around.

A bit of explanation

I used to work for a charity that allowed members to hire scooters for when they needed it to get around town shopping, we would also, on request, meet them at the nearby bus stop, with the scooter, so they can get right on it and go do their thing and even, once you finished for the day we'd even walk back with you to the bus stop, so you can get off your scooter and get straight off the bus. So of course, this required us to actually be on the things and drive them to and fro.

Damn, I loved that job, was so much fun driving the scooters to and fro from the back room to the front and to and from the bus stop.

[Eben56]

We get this crap all the time... My wife and I are not at the point where we use the carts yet, but the handicap spaces are a different thing. My wife has MS and so has no VISIBLE handicap. She just can't walk more than a few hundred feet with out a support mech. I have severe arthritis in the knees. These are not visible to the naked eye. Especially in that I am still too proud to use a cane so will just suffer for a while.
I avoid Walmart at all costs. (Yes, I am a stubborn man who will pay more for the item elsewhere) Mostly because of the attitude the OP described above.

[jerkface11]

I like Walmart. I just hate the way half the customers seem to have no manners at all.

[Apallo]

And, really, the state hands out those handicapped license platese to just anybody.

My wife had transverse myelitis (an autoimmune disease that attacks the myelin sheath of nerves in the spinal cord) and when were renewing her placard and trying to get dp plates for her car, the clerk was acting like it was her personal mission to preserve these plates. We asked her about them, and she actually said "You don't look disabled, why would you want the plates?". We had a doctor's note saying that yes, she is handicapped, and that she should have the placard and plates. It is very much against DMV policy to ask such a question, not to mention extremely rude. She wouldn't do anything until the manager came wandering over wondering what all the ruckus was about (I was maybe getting a little loud at that point). This is how I found out that it is against policy to ask such a question. Long story short, she did get the plates, but only after arguing with them or an hour.

About getting dirty looks from people for using the handicapped spaces, yeah, we get em too. My wife's disability is invisible (except for a slight limp) and i am not techically disabled (heh, though i may as well be with all the hip/knee problems i have) and we get some truly ugly looks from people for using those spaces. Whatever happened to "Judge me not lest ye be judged"?

[nomorecarts]

one guy screamed at my manager to "GET ONE OF THOSE FAT ASSES OUT OF THE ELECTRIC CARTS SO MY WIFE CAN HAVE ONE"

all he got was a pissed off manager

management's not usually involved, my store is alot better than most as far as customers go, and some of the assistant managers will actually tell people no.

[karath]

It is very much against DMV policy to ask such a question, not to mention extremely rude. She wouldn't do anything until the manager came wandering over wondering what all the ruckus was about (I was maybe getting a little loud at that point). This is how I found out that it is against policy to ask such a question. Long story short, she did get the plates, but only after arguing with them or an hour.

About getting dirty looks from people for using the handicapped spaces, yeah, we get em too. My wife's disability is invisible (except for a slight limp) and i am not techically disabled (heh, though i may as well be with all the hip/knee problems i have) and we get some truly ugly looks from people for using those spaces. Whatever happened to "Judge me not lest ye be judged"?

Find me a Christian who can genuinely follow the "judge me not" path and I'll donate my next few paychecks to my church. It's really rather disturbing how pick-and-choose people are with the Good Book; I'm sadly not really surprised that Christianity is getting a bum rap these days. Aaaand before this gets TOO deep into fratching turf...

I would love to see those folks who can't imagine someone could be handicapped without visible proof getting handicapped themselves. Hell, a family that goes to my church has a daughter who was born with a LOT of disorders, requires a LOT of care, and is in fact bad enough that the family has a handicapped placard for whichever car is currently carrying the little one (who is actually one of those adorable babies, I can say quite truthfully). Of course, they have no visible proof of handicap themselves...not sure if they've been called on that though.

That said...I almost shudder to imagine the poor fool who tries calling a parent who has been flying all over the world and living on very little sleep about not being handicapped themselves. Almost.

[DeltaSierra]

Several years back I ripped the ACL in my right knee from slipping on the ice. Was in a thigh-to-ankle cast for 2 months to stabilize it so it could heal. One day at WM I was using one of the scooters, and a SC came up to me and started screaming at me that I was "taking too long" (I'd only been in the store maybe 15 mins) and that "being fat isn't a handicap" that she gets tired fast, and and I had no right to be using the scooter. It was winter, so I had a pair of oversize jogging pants over the cast so you couldn't see it, but still, the woman yelling at me was bigger than I was and she was yelling at ME??? Thankfully a manager heard her screaming and told her to quit harassing me or she'd be thrown out. He got a BIG smile from me for that.

[Jay 2K Winger]

We have a couple of scooters at my store, as well, but thankfully I haven't had too many issues with SCs hollering at me or other customers for using them.

Honestly, the worst incident that happened with a scooter was as follows:

This family comes in, about six of them, plus two little kids. The father (or at least the leader of the gang) was this middle-aged guy, fairly heavyset, looked like he may have had mobility problems. Asks to use the scooter. Since I'm not allowed to turn someone down, I give him the key to the scooter, and he and the family go off into the store.

A little while later, I look up toward the front line. Dad's walking around, and his little kid is driving around in the scooter as they make their way up to the door. I'm getting ready to tell Daddy that the scooters are not toys, when he comes up to me and starts asking me about the vacation board we have posted on the wall above the food court.

As we turn around to look at this, he's pointing at all the prices and talking loudly at me, but then I see the little kid in the scooter trying to drive it out the door -- with an LCD TV laid flat in the scooter's basket. (It was a small one, obviously.)

I spot this and ask for the receipt. Daddy immediately says, "Oh, we're not done shopping yet!" and the whole group goes back into the store. And suddenly his questioning about the vacation board is forgotten.

I get swamped with more customers before I can report this, but a little while later, the family comes back up, pushing two cartloads of stuff, and I'm about to punch their receipt when I see the TV is still in the scooter (and the kid is still driving it), and it's not on the receipt. I point this out. Daddy goes, "Oh, we're not getting it!" and the kid hops out of the scooter and hops onto the side of one of the carts they were pushing.

I sigh, punch the receipt, and put the TV aside as I re-park the scooter. I reported the whole thing to the LPM, and was kinda proud at catching one of these "look the other way" tricks. Especially since this was only a few months into my LP job.

[Snowbird]

I wonder if anyone else here has seen the somewhat disturbing connection between the people who seem to fuss the most about the lack of scooters (overweight as opposed to physically disabled), and the future of humanity in the movie WALL-E.

Given that someone else here has mentioned that the fictional Buy-N-Large in the movie was similar to Wal-Mart, that's a scary thought. It made me wonder if the script writers had a similar experience while shopping there.

I feel so sorry for anyone that has to listen to and mediate a complaint like that.

[edible_hat]

There are three kinds of people who use those scooters:

1. those with genuine disability (permanent or temporary) that means they can't walk far. Many examples in this thread.
2. those transporting the carts, often from the storage area to the first kind of person.
3. those so lazy they want to sit down when they walk. Also the first to complain, mostly about the carts being all in use by those who genuinely need them.

[marasbaras]

I've injured my lower back severely twice in my life. Once required a month of lying down. The second time, I was in a wheelchair for two months, PT for six, and it has never really healed completely. I'm severely hypothyroid (so much so that the pharmacists ask if my prescription is correct, since I'm on a dose that's an order of magnitude larger than average) .... so, I'm not a small kid.

That said, I'd never ride in one of those scooters unless I had some kind of injury or break. In my experience, the majority of those who ride in those scooters are the ones who would benefit the most from walking. These SCs and EWs deprive those who REALLY need the mobility assitance of the use of the scooters because they are too lazy and too entitled to just walk through the bloody store.