Shopping Cart Drop-Out

I do a lot of grocery shopping (as I've frequently mentioned). A family with lots of people eats lots of food. Each of my sons can eat way more food than me, and they are just 7, 4, and 2. (Just a side note about Eli, the 4 year old. He just had his yearly checkup - he's in the 50th percentile for his height, and the 25th for his weight. We are excited about his weight progress - he was in the 10th percentile last year. Poor guy has such a fat-free diet because of his food restrictions! But he loves chicken skin, and we let him eat all he wants when we are having chicken for supper!)

So, back to grocery shopping. You can imagine I'd have to be in a bad way to take all 5 kids to the grocery store. For one thing, the cart would be too full of kids - no room for the food. So, I usually wait for Chris to come home from work, and then I take 1 or 2 kids with me.

I have a specific route that I usually take so I can get the best deals at several grocery stores. At most of the stores I visit, there are parking spaces right after the handicapped spots that are for "pregnant/small children" parking. Soo convenient! Whoever's brain storm that was hopefully got a big bonus. But this is what baffles me...

Why are the shopping cart corrals so far away from the "small children" parking spots????

Do the grocery store people really think that I'm going to unload my groceries into my car, and then take the buggy all the way across the parking lot, and then walk back across with my young children in tow to my car? Umm, I can think of several reasons why this would be unreasonable, especially if it's Seth with me who likes to run away fast and when I call him he likes to grin and run faster. Plus, it's just not safe. I know. I watch America's Most Wanted (Saturday nights at 9:00 on FOX).

So, I admit. I am a leaver of shopping carts in the middle of a parking lot. But only if I have my small children with me. And I'm not parked next to a buggy corral. I don't leave them in the middle of a parking spot. I angle them so they don't roll. But I do value my safety and sanity. And when Bi-Lo, Harris Teeter, Lowe's, and Food Lion decide to install buggy corrals next to their handicapped spots and "pregnant/small children" spots, I'll be glad to fulfil my civic duty and park my cart in them!