So, I am sharing this story in hopes that someone else can relate.
My best guess is most of us have been to Target and have not really been mindful of what we are buying finding humor in the posts on Facebook and Instagram with the following:
Target Cashier: “Did you find everything you need?”
Me: “I didn’t need any of this!”
or
Me pushing my cart to the check out with what I feel are the bare essentials. Totaling in my head my items, I think maybe I have spent $40.00 and then a quick reality check, ok, maybe $75.00 but definitely not more than $100.00.
Target Cashier announces “$187.98.”
Quickly I review the items I have collected and have just been placed into 3 bags thinking the cashier must have mistakenly charged me for some expensive electronics that belonged to the person in front of me. Regrouping quickly, I pay and think I will double check my receipt and go to customer service. No need to embarrass the cashier that made a mistake. Because I think there is no way I just dropped $187.98! (You know how this story ends, I did, in fact, buy $187.98 worth of products and after triple checking my receipt for the items and the math, I crumple it up and toss it in my cart and walk quickly to my car)
Anyway, both of those scenarios seem much better than the story I am about to share.
Last Sunday, I went to Target with my list written out by hand on my Hampton Paper Notepad. Grabbing the things I needed, pushing my cart, I grab a few bags of M&Ms so I can put them in the Easter candy dishes I got from Pottery Barn.
Next, I am looking for black shoelaces for my son Jackson’s sneakers. I leave my cart, wandering in the shoe sections wondering where the laces might be. I can’t find them and here is where it all starts to fall apart.
I think I find my cart and push it over to the kid’s section to get my son, Jackson, some new socks. There is low inventory and really only one bag of socks size M, 9-12 so probably on the cusp of fitting Jackson. I am deep in thought on this purchase for no particular reason. Should I get them and not worry about it or wait until they have a larger size. Will the larger size be too big for Jackson? I grab the size M and walk to my cart. Wait, where is my cart? I look from right to left, left to right and then right to left again. It is gone.
Panic starts to set in, (I see the humor in this now but at the time I was furious!) I retrace my steps walking back to the shoe section. Here is where I really start to get upset. I am pretty sure I had my cart when I went to the sock section but I am not 100% sure. I retrace my steps a 2nd time, find a Target employee and exclaim “Someone took my cart!” The basic response was a shrug and “Sorry ma’am.”
What did I do last, I think… Oh, I do remember putting the M&Ms in the cart. I walk back by the candy section. Nope, nothing there. I find another Target employee, “Someone took my cart!” The basic response was also a shrug and “Sorry, ma’am. Was there anything valuable in it?” Me “No, but it had all the groceries I wanted to purchase.” Response from the employee was a blank stare.
Now, I am really starting to panic, not just because I really didn’t want to have to go back and refill my cart but bc I realize I was so spaced out and lost in my thought that I couldn’t remember my actions from less than 5 min ago!
I walk to the front of the store and find a woman at by the cashiers. “Someone took my cart!” The woman responds and said
” Sometimes that happens, they think it is their cart.” ( note, in hindsight, I realize that this is a first world problem and it shows their lack of mindfulness too, and it really isn’t a big deal!) but at the time, I am starting to feel really crazy. Where is my cart?
The Target employee gets on her walkie talkie – she is taking action. Yay!
I walk back where I was in the sock section and go around the corner in the opposite direction of where I came from and I spy my cart. Phew, crisis averted. Sort of. I still need to come to terms with my lack of being mindful. Please tell me I am not alone.
Anyway, if it has happened to you too, then maybe you can join me in my new mantra “Must be mindful at Target!, Must be Mindful at Target!”
P.S. The part I am still wondering about is, if someone did take my cart by accident, why didn’t they bring it back? Wouldn’t they have to come back anyway and pick up their cart? Isn’t there some type of cart etiquette required in this situation? If not, shouldn’t there be?
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