The Squeaky Wheel

The other day I wrote about my own little Murphy’s Law that plagues me when I am shopping–other shoppers standing for an eternity directly in front of what I am trying to find.  Today I was reminded of another pet peeve that happens to many of us while traveling through the stores.

It’s the squeaky wheel on the carts.  I try hard to pick a smooth rider when I grab a cart, but so often I get just far enough away from the cart corral that it would be a hassle to go back—and one of the wheel develops a very loud squeak.

I wiggle the cart around, trying to convince the wheel to go back to its silent roll.  I push it back and forth, positive that the squeak is temporary and I can work it out and go back to quietly shopping.  Because when you have the squeaky-wheel cart, people look at you.  They hear you coming and stop to see who is making that obnoxious noise!  And some of them look at you with sympathy and push their softly rolling carts away a little more quickly.

Worse than the squeaky-wheel cart is the cart with a wheel that suddenly stops rolling and skids.  If I don’t have a good grip, I can find myself almost catapulting over the handle in surprise.  Once I recover, I  again try rolling in every direction, trying to work out the skid.  More often than not, I end up dragging the cart the rest of the way through the store wishing for the nice smooth ride I had when I started.

I enjoy a good shopping trip and love drifting up and down aisles, perusing odd items and finding treasures to take home.  It’s just that once in awhile, my cart seems to be working against me!  Maybe someone will create a well-wheel-detector app for my phone and I can scan for the smooth rollers!  That would be a game-changer!