The Supermarket Trolley Debacle...

Today I have visited my local Sainsbury's with my twins.  I like Sainsbury's, they have lovely bread, a helpful fishmonger and fantastic children's clothes which are a complete bargain.  It was raining, and as I ran to fetch a trolley in which to deposit them straight from the car, I hoped and prayed to find one which we would be able to use.  I had to go four deep to find one which had both straps for both seats, the others had at least one of their straps missing.

So I went to complain.  Again.  For the EIGHTH time.  Yes, on no fewer than 7 previous occasions I have trekked to customer services to point out that they have unsafe trolleys - on one of these occasions I even spoke to a manager who later phoned me and assured me that new straps had been ordered.  "Would you like to speak to the manager?" enquired the 'helpful' young man behind the counter today (it is he who I have reported it to on several of these occasions).  Well, no.  I don't want to stand here waiting for him to make his way down from his little office to tell me how very sorry he is and that something will be done about it.  I have a finite quantity of time in which to shop, get home and make lunch, and put both my children to bed for a nap before I am treated to a double meltdown.  Unless you want to come with me and deal with said meltdown?  I took a deep breath, smiled and declined his offer, pointed out I was in a hurry, and said I would just like for it to be sorted out.

Yesterday at our twins group we mums were actually having a conversation about how difficult it can be going shopping with twins, and none of the supermarkets came out favourably.  There are rarely enough twin trolleys available, some mums spoke of having to trek round the various trolley bays dotted around the carpark to find one, and then when they are available they are often not in correct working order or are filthy dirty.  I once tried to put my two in one of the baby seat trolleys at Waitrose - I used nearly half a pack of wipes cleaning the things up before I would even consider putting the children in.  I went to tell them about it and, to their credit, the next time I went to use them they were all clean.

And then there are the shops you have to negotiate with the double pushchair.  Mothercare was mentioned, as was Next - I absolutely cannot get round Next children's department with my pushchair, and mine is an inline, tandem one, not a side-by-side.  I don't bother going anymore unless I'm on my own - it's like some sort of warped Crystal Maze challenge.

I wonder if these shops could remember that we are there to give them our money?  Surely it would make sense to make that as easy as possible for us?