CART TRAINER #6

After working as a Cart Trainer for about nine months at multiple supermarket locations, it became very apparent to management that their Carts were being treated much better, suffering less damage as they were orderly placed in the Cart Racks. The overall care was just higher. I called it better Cartitude, instead of attitude.

Besides this, fewer Carts were crossing the Yellow Lines on the perimeters of the parking lots. The training was truly paying off. I was feeling fulfilled and useful in my skill and expertise as a Cart Trainer.

Then I had a real shocker. The Supermarkets decided they did not need my services any longer (that’s like getting fired). I was also shocked when they informed me why: they had all along already installed electronic ‘fences’ in their Parking Lots activated by a buried antenna causing a wheel-locking device to activate on the Carts to make taking them out of the designated perimeter extremely difficult. The systems I was told are not cheap: about $60 per cart to install. But it was paying for itself in saved and stolen Carts.

Now of course my question to management was obvious: why did you hire me as a Cart Trainer and have me think I was doing the Training of the Carts when all along you had this electronic system preventing the carts from crossing the yellow lines? Their answer was simple: We needed you to Train People how to treat Carts… not how Carts should be trained. None of this seemed quite right and I marked it down as another business enterprise that did not turn out the way I thought it might. But Cart Awareness is higher… and that’s good… and I have heard rumors of Cart Awareness Month in June.

No, really, that is what happened.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Jesus