My First Time Driving a Motorized Shopping Cart

I am a bit of a stubborn person by nature. It took me a long time to admit that yes, at times I definitely need that handicapped parking sticker. And now that I have been using it, it has made life a little easier. The other night I was feeling very lightheaded and weak but decided to go on with my usual routine. Well, the only place that got me was sitting on the floor in the middle of a Lowes home improvement store.

Several of my friends have suggested that I use a motorized shopping cart on a bad day or when I'm in a large store. So, I finally gave in and tried one. And go figure, the first time out, I got a dud. It was not a smooth ride. Although I'm sure it only traveled all of about 5 miles per hour at most, it was very touchy and took me awhile to get the hang of driving it. Don't let my experience discourage you though, I'm sure they couldn't all be this difficult to navigate. The cart was stop, go, stop, go, stop, go and didn't turn very well. But aside from the technical issues, I had a much more pleasant shopping experience than usual. I was able to last much longer and didn't have a woozy spell once.

After the parking sticker incident, I was apprehensive about the way people would perceive me or the looks I would get for operating a motorized cart. But surprisingly, the shoppers and staff of Fred Meyer I met in the aisles were surprisingly friendly. I got a few looks, but not dirty ones. Nobody asked me why I was using a motorized cart, and nobody seemed to care. All in all it was a much better experience than I anticipated. There were only a few major drawbacks to using a motorized cart. The first was, I could not fit many items in the basket. So if I had a lot of heavy shopping to do, I would probably need someone else to come along and push a regular cart if I could not do it myself. The second thing is, if I were not physically able to stand that day, there are many items that I wouldn't have been able to reach from the cart. The last thing is, some of the aisles were a bit too narrow for the cart to clear so I found myself taking alternate routes a lot, which was a bit annoying.

If you have been contemplating trying a motorized shopping cart, I would highly recommend it. If you are still uncomfortable with the idea, try it in a store you don't ordinarily shop in. There is nothing to be ashamed of, but I understand that it can be exhausting to explain your predicament to people you see on a regular basis. Automatically people tend to assume that you've been injured because they just saw you walk in the store last week. If only dysautonomia were as simple as an injury that would heal, life would be much, much easier.