Grocery store etiquette from Good Housekeeping

by Nicole Weston, Posted Mar 5th 2006 @ 12:58PM

In the Etiquette column of this month's Good Housekeeping, there was a strange query. A reader wanted to know whether it would be appropriate to move someone's shopping cart when it is blocking the aisle in the supermarket. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Assuming that the reader was not planning on moving the offending cart to the far end of the store, was this really a question that needed to be asked? Does she simply stand there behind the cart and wait for something to happen? If the owner of the blocking cart had moved off to look for something else, leaving the cart unattended, one must wonder how long she would wait behind the unmoving cart. The columnist suggested that a polite "Excuse me" would probably suffice, but that it was acceptable to "gently push the cart aside" if left with no alternative. Is this sort of issue really such a crisis that they needed to write to a national magazine to have it sorted out? I can only hope that she doesn't live in my neighborhood, because if she is that unable to navigate the grocery store, I'd hate to see her in busy traffic.

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Filed Under: Magazines, Stores & Shopping
Tags: etiquette, etiquette column, good housekeeping, grocery store, magazine, magazine column, manners, manners column, manners question, peggy post, question, reader questions, shopping, shopping cart, shopping trolly, stores-and-shopping, supermarket

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-05-2006 @1:34PM Finished.Law.School said... Push it out of the way. Considering how people drive their behavior in the grocery store is typically worse from my experience. The worst is when some idiot steals your grocery cart... I've got stories about that.
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3-05-2006 @2:09PM L. said... Are you sure you weren`t reading this in The Onion?

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3-05-2006 @3:02PM Brian said... This sounds like a softball fluff question. Pretty ridiculous to even have to ask. While I have been fussed at for moving someone's cart a few inches to get by, when I said that I couldn't get past otherwise, the person quickly apologized.

Grocery shopping is so different than other types of retail, most of those times you carry all your purchases with you, instead of leaving your cart a few feet away to browse.

I agree with L, this sounds like something more suited for a column in The Onion
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3-05-2006 @5:42PM Rachel B. said... i seriously don't know how some people get through the day.
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3-05-2006 @6:51PM Andrew said... when faced with such 'dilemmas' I either shove the trolley as hard as I possibly can out of the way or push it to another isle.... naughty but hey, it enlivens an otherwise dull day...

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