Trolley Trouble

What with me having had a car for three months now, i've found myself heading out shopping a bit more often - both for groceries, as well as occasionally to the shopping malls to have a general wander and browse (at least when the shop assistants let me!). That said, i've taken to noticing quite a bit about American car parks. Aside from the obvious ones that i have mentioned before (people driving round and round to get to a spot nearest the door etc. etc.), it's quite interesting to note the American regard (or rather lack of) when it comes to shopping trolleys aka carts - it should be noted that I asked someone where the trolleys were once, only to be look at as if I was insane (I was gonna say 'off my trolley' but it seemed a pun to far!). The funny thing is that the stores themselves seem to hold little regard for them as well!

The first thing is that a lot of the trolleys here are plastic - and, as you'll see in a few lines, this is a good thing. Secondly, you don't have to pay for one (unless you're at the airport). In the UK, you have to usually put a pound into a slot on the trolley to unlock it, and then when you return it, you get the pound back. A simple and effective way of keeping things in order, although it can be annoying if you don't have a pound handy. Of course, the Americans don't have many coins here so that would be difficult (i can see people happily abandoning them if it was just a quarter involved). Because of this lack of control, you get a liberal sprinkling of trolleys (I wonder what the group verb is. How about 'a trounce of trolleys'?) around the place. Whilst the stores put trolley parks up all over the place, it doesn't seem to do much good. The other day, I saw an average-sized guy leaving the trolley behind the car next to his when the trolley park was a mere 10 strides away. All this leads me to the point of how thankful I am that these things are plastic lest i ever have the misfortune of running into one. At the minute it's not happened but it seems that wherever i park, someone likes to put the trolley RIGHT BEHIND MY CAR. One of these days, i may just flip and go on a trolley-squashing rampage. I'll keep you updated if that ever happens!!