Our local co-op is really convenient to me - I live two minutes from it so I'm always popping in to grab a few bits when my weekly shop is running low. I've always shopped in there since moving to the area, but it wasn't until I had Elliot that I realised how small and cramped it is. My buggy is a Silvercross Freeway and it's lovely to push, has lots of room underneath but it is rather bulky. But is by no means the biggest buggy out there! Everytime I pop in, I usually end up leaving the buggy at the end of an aisle and dashing about grabbing my shopping whilst keeping one eye on Elliot because there is literally no room to manoeuvre in the aisles.
A couple of weeks ago I popped in and we had an embarrasing collison with a cardboard twix promotion stand! The following week it was a stack of french sticks! It's always in the same place too, just by the check out where everyone queues so I have no choice but to battle down that aisle. When the french sticks got bashed over, there were boxes of stock all along the aisle meaning the width was actually less than my buggy - not good! So I thought sod it, and I barged on through leaving a trail of destruction!
Today we had another incident which was probably the most embarrasing yet.... it involved water!! We were queuing down my least favourite aisle and I realised that the gap to get through was cluttered with buckets of water with flowers in. I thought I'd be ok but as I wheeled through my wheels took the buckets out leaving a massive pool of water with some sorry looking bunches of carnations in the middle! There was a big queue and everyone was staring, no one offered to help and the sour faced bag on the till looked disgusted as she called for assistance over the loud speaker!! I mentioned that there was not enough room and she just tutted. Along came a young lad to clean up the mess and I could hear him moaning "oh for gods sake, whats happened" so I turned around and in my most pompous moany old lady voice I said "there's not enough room for a buggy, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!!". I picked up my shopping, avoided the giant puddle of water and flounced out....almost knocking a tower of toilet rolls over!
I do wonder how wheelchairs manage to get around the shop if buggy users are having problems. Are your local shops buggy friendly? Have you ever had an embarrasing moment involving a tower of beans?!
