Earlier today I was at the grocery store. I observed something that severely irritated me both as a physician and as a fellow denizen of this great society.
As a bit of a background, many grocery stores now provide devices such as this for their patrons...
This particular store that I regularly frequent has several, at least 6-7 by my count. Of course, there is the cost of purchasing these for the store. But, there is also the costs of charging and maintenance.
The troubling part today was my observation of one of the particular customers riding around in this type of cart doing her shopping. She was not overweight. She was not on an oxygen tank/nasal cannula. I would estimate her age at late 40's, early 50's. There were no other immediately obvious signs of physical limitations to this person, and this is coming from a trained eye. (I fully recognize there can be all manner of heart conditions, neurologic conditions, or other other disorders that you can't "see". I am a doctor, after all.)
However, my suspicions began to be confirmed when, at one point, she bounded up out of the cart in apparent frustration with her teenage son who couldn't seem to figure out what she wanted in the meat aisle. Again, there was absolutely no observable indication of physical limitation. In fact, she walked around for several minutes, reached above her head without a problem, picked up several packages of meat and inspected them without a problem. There was no festination in her walk. There was no slow, cogwheeling moves. There was no obvious hemiparesis. She moved quickly and rapidly and stayed out of the motorize cart for several minutes before climbing back in. While I did not confront her (because what's the point) and ask her what her ailment was, it did not immediately appear to me that she actually had an ailment necessitating being in an electric shopping cart.
Now, stores provide these carts in good faith to those customers who genuinely need them. My problem with this situation is as follows:
(1) She's potentially unnecessarily tying-up this cart robbing a resource for someone else that might actually need it.
(2) There is evidence to suggest that these devices overall can actually make people's health worse because it discourages even minimal cardiovascular exercise associated with ADLs such as grocery shopping, etc. (http://ift.tt/1ffktf1)
(3) The cost of putting these into stores, notwithstanding the good intentions by the shop owners, overall raises the costs to the rest of us, the consumer, in buying their products. Why should consumers pay for these devices if ultimately they are going to be abused by patrons? Should you have to "check them out" at the front of the store and provide a reason for your disability? Do the stores even care or are they just pandering?
This is obviously not the first time I've seen this and suspected this, and I'm sure several of you have witnessed similar instances as well. But, this was so blatant today that it chapped my hide a little. Certainly, the usually-obese patron that I often see in these chairs would probably benefit instead from walking around the store rather than riding around it. But, bottom line (and I freely admit I have no way to prove this) is that I believe that this lady was simply being lazy and didn't want to walk around the grocery store. At least in the short time I was there, I so demonstrable proof that she needed this shopping cart to get around the store.
I know there are more important things to worry about in this world. But, this really bothered me today. Similar to people who abuse handicap parking.
~Dr. Imago
As a bit of a background, many grocery stores now provide devices such as this for their patrons...
This particular store that I regularly frequent has several, at least 6-7 by my count. Of course, there is the cost of purchasing these for the store. But, there is also the costs of charging and maintenance.
The troubling part today was my observation of one of the particular customers riding around in this type of cart doing her shopping. She was not overweight. She was not on an oxygen tank/nasal cannula. I would estimate her age at late 40's, early 50's. There were no other immediately obvious signs of physical limitations to this person, and this is coming from a trained eye. (I fully recognize there can be all manner of heart conditions, neurologic conditions, or other other disorders that you can't "see". I am a doctor, after all.)
However, my suspicions began to be confirmed when, at one point, she bounded up out of the cart in apparent frustration with her teenage son who couldn't seem to figure out what she wanted in the meat aisle. Again, there was absolutely no observable indication of physical limitation. In fact, she walked around for several minutes, reached above her head without a problem, picked up several packages of meat and inspected them without a problem. There was no festination in her walk. There was no slow, cogwheeling moves. There was no obvious hemiparesis. She moved quickly and rapidly and stayed out of the motorize cart for several minutes before climbing back in. While I did not confront her (because what's the point) and ask her what her ailment was, it did not immediately appear to me that she actually had an ailment necessitating being in an electric shopping cart.
Now, stores provide these carts in good faith to those customers who genuinely need them. My problem with this situation is as follows:
(1) She's potentially unnecessarily tying-up this cart robbing a resource for someone else that might actually need it.
(2) There is evidence to suggest that these devices overall can actually make people's health worse because it discourages even minimal cardiovascular exercise associated with ADLs such as grocery shopping, etc. (http://ift.tt/1ffktf1)
(3) The cost of putting these into stores, notwithstanding the good intentions by the shop owners, overall raises the costs to the rest of us, the consumer, in buying their products. Why should consumers pay for these devices if ultimately they are going to be abused by patrons? Should you have to "check them out" at the front of the store and provide a reason for your disability? Do the stores even care or are they just pandering?
This is obviously not the first time I've seen this and suspected this, and I'm sure several of you have witnessed similar instances as well. But, this was so blatant today that it chapped my hide a little. Certainly, the usually-obese patron that I often see in these chairs would probably benefit instead from walking around the store rather than riding around it. But, bottom line (and I freely admit I have no way to prove this) is that I believe that this lady was simply being lazy and didn't want to walk around the grocery store. At least in the short time I was there, I so demonstrable proof that she needed this shopping cart to get around the store.
I know there are more important things to worry about in this world. But, this really bothered me today. Similar to people who abuse handicap parking.
~Dr. Imago
via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/1gY0k8x
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