A spoonful of sugar makes the universe go round

[netpositive]

...in other words, life ain't fair,
enjoy the bounty provided us,
and try to make things better.
-madbodger

Dropped by Costco this morning. Normally
I'm not the one who makes Costco runs, but
I was already awake, and we were running
low on cheddar cheese and microwave popcorn...

On my way out of the store, I noticed both
a large orange flatbed cart and a regular size
shopping cart had been left out along one edge
of a parking lot island, in the way of people
driving around madly looking for parking spots.
(Anyone who's been at a Costco on a Sunday
morning after 11 AM knows what I mean.)

Since I had a spare minute: first, I brought back
my own cart [I'd actually parked on the street
outside the lot at 10:15 AM] to one of the "cart
drop off areas" scattered throughout the lot, and
then started across the twenty yards or so to the
other two stranded carts.

A man, probably in mid-late fifties, was walking
toward me, and being the nice efficient person I
am, I thought, Great! I can ask him to grab
one of the carts since he is right there and
it's on his way...

"Excuse me, sir, could you help by grabbing one
of those carts and just dropping it by that cart
area over there?"

Most people are good about being asked to spare
a few seconds to help do something, so I admit I
was a bit taken aback when he stopped and said
angrily, "What? Why should I do something to help
Costco?"

Wow. It never dawned on me to think of it THAT way...

I think I stared at him, wide-eyed. What I know I
said - and yes, I know it wasn't an answer, but a
restatement of the original request - was, "Well,
if you can help _me_, because I'm going to move
both of them in any case."

I then walked over and took the larger orange cart,
and started pushing it towards the cart area without
looking back at him to see if he was helping or not.

With bad grace, he brought the other cart over too,
and I walked back out again to take it off his hands
as quickly as possible. "Thank you very much, sir,"
I said with a pleasant smile.

"You know, they pay people to do this. It's their *job*!"

"I know, sir; I was just worrying about people having to
drive around it."

And as I walked off, I heard his muttered, "Okay, that's
a good point."

Did I change anyone's view of the world today?
I don't know. I just did what I always do: be myself.

And the universe rewards me with ten thousand things.

Comments

[daecabhir]

Funny that... I too do things like that... in particular so that folks' cars don't get dinged by carts where people don't expect them to be. And it usuall costs me less than 30 seconds to snag another cart on my way to return my own, so did I really lose anything?

Small ripples resonate... some people will change, others will go on oblivious... most important of all is to be true to yourself..

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

Wow, you quoted me! That improved my day.

I do the same thing with the carts, even though there are lot attendants.
In fact, fizzygeek is friends with the lot attendants where she
works, guess what, they're human, who'd a thunk it? In fact, a couple of
nights ago I took the lot attendant's suggestion and powdered my saffron
before adding it to the rice. Sure enough, the rice came out better! Wow,
I'm rambling.

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Good for you!