I don’t think too many people in the grocery industry give much credit to the courtesy clerks. They are essential to the daily operations of the grocery store. Courtesy clerks do things that no one else wants to do, like cleaning the bathrooms, bottlerooms, mopping and sweeping the floors. They also do something that even the customers take for granted, protecting their automobiles.
Customers do tend to get lazy and leave their grocery cart anywhere they please. When grocery carts aren’t in their corrals; they become misguided missiles to unfortunate automobiles. Whether you park close or far, your automobile is never safe, a misplaced grocery cart will find it’s way to leave unwanted dents and dings. And worst of all, the grocery stores are NOT liable for any damages.
It’s like the game Asteroids. You must clear out all asteroids to win the game and when you get hit, the game is over.
A courtesy clerks job is to retrieve as many grocery carts as they can and usually it’s only 5 at a time. They must strategically pick which grocery carts are most at risk and retrieve them to prevent any damage. There are times when the courtesy clerk is pushing the carts into the store and there’s one flying towards an automobile; they must make a quick decision to either try and stop the grocery cart from damaging the car or make the decision to continue to push the carts into the store because if they decide to stop the unattended cart then the carts that they are pushing will now become misguided missiles as well.
I’m sure everyone has their share of dents and dings on their automobile as a result of grocery shopping, our cars have more dents and dings than usual because we work at the grocery store but there would have been a lot more if it wasn’t for those courtesy clerks.
