Who says the laws of nature only apply to living creatures like humans and elephants? Supermarket trolleys have a soul as well – and they certainly suffer a fair amount of abuse during their life span. The odd supermarket trolley escapes and ends up in front gardens, on motorway berms and up side down in a creek – these are normally the alpha animals, the ones who have the guts to try something different.
The vast and silent majority of supermarket trolleys appears to be herd focused, just like many of us – and of course elephants.
We know what happens to us when we pass on; we are carted off to the cemetery in either a long angular box or a small urn. We also know that elephants disappear when their time comes and the phenomenon is important enough to justify its very own Wikipedia entry. But did you ever wonder what happens to shopping trolleys which have passed their ‘use by’ date? Sauerkraut has been wondering about that for years and the answer can now be revealed. YES, shopping trolleys whose time has come behave like lemmings and join their mates in the shopping malls’ car parks, where they quietely rust away, in full view of any customer who parks his or her cark within a 200 metre radius.
Supermarket Gurus may well spend their time talking about the new trends in supermarket shopping – but will supermarkets still be around in a few years time, given the rate at which their trolleys slink away to their car park grave yard?
It does not matter where in the developed world one lives nor whether one is male or female, straight or otherwise, of European descent or already part of the cultural & ethnic mix that our descendants will turn into – supermarkets are never far from our mind. The hunter/gatherers of prehistoric times pursue these activities within supermarkets today. Supermarkets have, depending whom one wishes to believe, a market share of between 60-85% of the total food business. Yes, I know that there are variations and fluctuations based on store departments, store location and the competence level of store management, but I am talking averages here. My favourite source of semi-reliable information, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarket), suggests that
“a supermarket is a self-servicestore offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store and it is smaller than a hypermarket or superstore.”
Whilst one usually has to take wikipedia with a grain of salt as all and sundry are able to edit contributions on-line , I am sure that most readers would agree with this description as being fairly accurate. Let’s see what else wikipedia has to say on the topic to help us better understand what a supermarket is – and equally as important, what it is not!
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