Yes, that’s right, over a quarter. 25 cents. Why? It’s the principle of the thing.
Yesterday morning, I was running my errands, which included a stop at an ALDI grocery store. ALDI is a German company that brought over lots of European practices to their American stores, including the need to use a quarter to release a shopping cart from the corral, you get the quarter back when you’re done, it’s a deposit to guard against cart theft and to eliminate the need for store staff to . They explain on their website, here.
As I parked, the woman parked in front of me was trying to corral four young kids, none looked older than maybe 6, and get them into the store. One of them got out of the car and didn’t bother to close the door, and the mother didn’t notice. I got my cart, glanced over and saw the door and mentioned it to the woman. She got a stricken look on her face and I could see her trying to figure out how to safely cross the lot with all of her kids (who were being rather unruly) to close the door, so I offered to do it for her.
I rolled my cart with me part of the way, along the sidewalk in front of the store about 7 or 8 yards past the doors. I left it there on the sidewalk while I crossed the lot and closed the door because it seemed faster and safer to go across the lot without the cart to encumber me. It took me maybe 10 seconds, tops. When I got back across, a woman had walked all the way past the door from the other direction, (because if she’d been coming toward me I would’ve seen her) in order to take my cart. I called and said “Excuse me, that’s my cart, I was just closing the car door!”
She wouldn’t turn to look at me. That’s when I realized that she’d acted intentionally. She said “So?” while looking straight ahead.
I said “You need to either give me back my cart or give me a quarter.” She kept walking, wouldn’t turn and look back, she had clearly been in the store before because she had a list and was directing her husband, who also refused to even glance in my direction, giving him orders on what to get and where it was.
I couldn’t quite catch up with her, she was a couple of yards ahead and not stopping for love or money, grabbing items and throwing them in the cart while mid-stride, and there were other shoppers sort of in the way, but I tried once more. “Lady, carts here require a quarter. You’ve got my cart and my quarter, and you aren’t entitled to get MY quarter back when you’re done shopping.” No response.
A quarter isn’t that big a deal. I probably lose ten of them in the course of a year just from falling out of my pockets when I’m sat on other people’s sofas, or in the ridiculously deep chairs in my doctor’s office waiting room. But it’s the principle of the thing. She saw a chance to go out of her way to get a cart without using a quarter that she would get back and in the bargain, she stole that quarter from me. I don’t take things that belong to other people and I don’t like it when people take from me.
I only intended to get a few things, but they weren’t things easily carried in arms, and the store doesn’t offer handbaskets. And I didn’t have another quarter. I had change of all sorts, but no quarters, and the lines were long, I couldn’t stand in line for a cashier to get a quarter to go back out, get another cart and then come back in and shop, I didn’t have time. So I ended up getting only a few of the things that I wanted and left very disgruntled.
And now I’m a little pissed off, because that women knew what she was doing. She acted very intentionally. Here she was, a 60-something year old woman, becoming a thief, over 25 damn cents.
So lady, I pit you. I pit you for being a thief. I pit you for being the pettiest of petty thieves. I pit you for making my shopping experience shitty. I pit you for being a dirty opportunist who stole from me while I was doing something nice for someone else. I pit you for making it so that I have to go back to the store sooner than I wanted to get the things I couldn’t get because of what you did.
I hope you like the quarter. It was a Utah quarter. Maybe some Mormon morals will rub off on you for having it. You could use some.
