"etiquette column" news and stories

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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