Grocery Cart Challenge

By: Peggy Willms

(4 min read)

Perhaps you have been scrolling through the most recent social media videos and stumbled upon the latest challenge – the Grocery Cart Challenge. Multiple videos are being uploaded as people creatively zoom their shopping carts with a variety of angles attempting to slide carts into the parking lot receptacle. Love the idea as long as they don’t hit any children, pets, or damage property in the process. I never really understood why it was so difficult for us to put the shopping cart back where we found it. After all, isn’t that what Momma taught us. “Put it back where it belongs!”

This will be a different kind of grocery cart challenge…

Challenges are always popping up on the Internet. There have been some great ones, such as the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge, which shed light on ALS awareness. Participants knowingly or unknowingly were saturated in humungous buckets of ice-cold water. There are always exercise challenges and one worth noting is for an honorable cause. It is not necessarily designed for beginners. And the challenge is often executed on Memorial Day. It is called the Murph (without the y) Workout Challenge in honor of fallen Navy Seal, Michael Murphy, who died while on active duty in Afghanistan in 2005. The workout is a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another one-mile run.

There are also nutrition challenges out there, such as J Lo’s holler out to Hoda Kotb on the Today Show with her No Sugar, No Carb, 10-Day Challenge.

I do love those challenges that turn your frown upside down, like the Mannequin Challenge, where the song Black Beatles is blaring, and everyone in the shot freezes in time like a mannequin in your favorite window display. Gobs of celebrities played along with this one, from Ellen to LeBron James at the White House.

And, of course, there is always the dark side of light – and I will give one sentence to mention – there are a number of horrible and life-threatening challenges I would never support from choking on Tide Pods to Fainting Challenges. #NUFFSAID

So back to the Grocery Cart Challenge. I tend to look at things with a little bit of a different lens than some. I appreciate the fun in this challenge, but it more prompted me to think, “Why in the hell is it so difficult for us to return shopping carts to the place we found them?” I am here to tell you I am not perfect, and I have on occasion – BUT NOT MY NORM – chosen not to return the cart to its little home.

So which one or all of these excuses have you used (if you have some others, be sure to let me know):

–“They have employees whose specific job is to collect the carts from the parking lots. I mean, what would they do if we all put our carts away?”

–“I am making it convenient for the next shopper.”

–“I was in a hurry.”

–“But the cart collector thingee is waaaay over there!”

–“It was raining…snowing…hot…”

–“I don’t want to leave my kiddos in the car alone.”

–[insert your thoughts or actions here]

Well, here is the next thing I was interested to find out. According to most research out there (yes, there is research on who returns or doesn’t return their shopping carts), we all fall into one of these categories more often than the others. Which one are you? I am about 90% Returner, and the rest I am the Pressure Returner.

–Returners. Regardless of how far away they’ve parked or what the weather is like, they return their cart to the receptacle with a sense of obligation and/or feel bad for the people responsible for collecting the carts.

–Never Returners. They believe it’s someone else’s job to get the carts or the supermarket’s responsibility and show little regard for where the carts are left.

–Convenience Returners.Only if they are parked close to the receptacle or see a cart attendant these people will return their carts.

–Pressure Returners. People who will return their carts only if the cart attendant is present or if the adjacent car’s owner is present.

–Child-Driven Returners. These are people with children who view it as a game to return carts, often riding them back to the receptacle or pushing them into the stacked lines.

So join along in the social media Grocery Cart Challenge and be sure to upload your fun video.

But what I am truly interested in is whether you will join the COACH PEGGY’S GROCERY CART CHALLENGE:

I challenge you over the next 10 Days to put the following in your cart and, oh yeah, take them home, prepare and eat them:

–EIGHT different colored fruits and veggies

–A fruit or veggie you have NEVER eaten

–Try a new recipe you have NEVER made

Let me know how you did. After all, what goes IN your grocery cart is more important than where the cart goes.

Peggy Willms
                                                                     All Things Wellness, LLC
                                                                  peggy@allthingswellness.com

The information provided is the opinion of the author. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. diagnosis, or treatment. The author and the business, All Things Wellness, LLC, and its owner Peggy Willms, are not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information in this article or on this website. We assume no responsibility for tangible and intangible damages such physical harm caused by using a product, loss of profits or loss of data, and defamatory comments. This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases.