Grocery cart demise

Seat belts are important. Especially for the kids. They have so much life left to live, and it’d be a shame for them to lose their life in an accident. A seat belt is as easy to attach as reaching to each side, grabbing part of the belt, sliding your hand to the buckle, bringing the buckles together, snapping them into each other, and then pulling the belt tight, and not following those steps can cost precious, innocent lives. That’s why I must whole-heartedly endorse the use of seat belts in grocery carts.

In 2005, a homemaker took her little two-year-old son and six-year-old daughter to the grocery store. Only two of them came home alive. This mother of two was looking for a certain brand of flour so she could use an old family recipe to make her youngest a birthday cake. While she inspected the shelves, her back was facing the cart. This is when her daughter decided it would be best to look for breakfast cereal.

The little girl pushed the cart down the aisle and around the corner into the cooking utensils aisle. She pushed the cart past heavy pots and steel pans. Further down the aisle, big, thick-plastic turkey bags hung loosely from hooks on the shelves. Finally, the cart was pushed into the cutlery section, where stainless steel cooking knives gleamed under the fluorescent lights of the branded grocery store.

Without breakfast cereal in sight, the little girl became completely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and kicked the cart into high gear. Putting one foot in front of the other, the cart began to pick up speed. The little girl zoomed past the knives and planted her foot to turn sharply at the end of the aisle. The cart tipped slightly and the young boy slipped from his unrestrained seat and floated through the air as if being carried by some evil spirit. With a splash the child landed amongst the most scrumptious lobsters.

The EMT arrived on the scene and declared the child dead due to lobster pinches. The mother was consoled with a 50% discount and a free, delicious lobster.

Tragic stories such as this one have prompted some response in the grocery industry. Kroger has taken a bold step to include seat belts in their grocery carts, preventing what many estimate to be over 3,000 child deaths a year. We all should support this great step towards child safety in our daily lives. Do your shopping at Kroger, and if you see a kid hanging off the back of a shopping cart, look him in the eye and say, “Buckle up: it’s a guideline.”