Cart, Buggy, Whatever

Depending on your respective area of the United States, your name for that contraption you use to haul your groceries around the store in will vary. However, the point of this post is not to argue about that, although you might be interested in knowing that if you were in Japan, you would more than likely call it a かご. Fun fact for the day.

They aren't all this way, but at our particular neighborhood supermarket, to use a buggy you must first insert a ¥100 coin, like so:

You then push in the coin, then the red thing connected to the chain above pops out, then you're on your merry way. After you are finished, you reconnect it with the cart in front of it and your coin pops back out.

Even though I occasionally have to scramble for a ¥100 coin, I have to admit, they have a pretty brilliant system going on. ¥100 is approximately $1, and you definitely wouldn't want to run off and leave your buck stuck in a cart now do ya? That's a large drink at Sonic Happy Hour!! (Unless the cost has gone up since I left the States) Therefore, you very willingly return your cart to all its little friends in the cart corral, and no cart pushers are needed. 

Fun Fact #2: Jason was a cart pusher at Wal-Mart one summer. It was the summer I spent in Romania, so I didn't see him for 8 weeks. When I came back, he was super tan and muscular from his job. Hubba hubba. Moral of the story, dudes: Cart pushing can be a very, VERY beneficial job.