Shopping Cart Series: Pomegranate Parking Problem
We’re all workers, here, at the Pomegranate Supermarket in Midwood (1507 Coney Island Avenue).
When the store first opened up to critical acclaim, the first customers lamented about the high prices, the lack of cheddar cheese, and no place to park their cars.
Less than a year later, at the Brooklyn Blogfest, outside.in reported that Pomegranate Market was one of the most searched terms in the local cybersphere. We’re really not sure why everyone was so interested in our workplace. Yeah, sure they have nice, smooth floors, but everything else is just like Super Stop and Shop over in Sheepshead Bay, except it’s all kosher.
When the parking lot was not ready for the many moneyed folks who just could not see themselves pushing one of those pedestrian carts with their groceries piled high, many stayed away due to the lack of street parking. Now, well-dressed Pomegranate customers arrive in their large, shiny cars, stop at the gate, with traffic all backed up, and hand over their keys to the valet. Yes, you heard me right. The valet!
So, this is what makes Pomegranate Supermarket a cut above the rest, not the food, the service, or the way the treat their shopping carts — it’s the valet parking lot!
The parking lot is too small to hold us humble, unengined 4-wheelers, so when the fancy customers unload their goods and get into their cars, they discard us shopping carts anywhere they so desire. Just the other day, I nearly had a heart attack when the most loyal shopping cart friend I’ve ever known, “Good Gray”, was left out on the street and he got hit by a minivan.
We all stood vigil for “Good Gray”, hoping and praying that he would make it through. That night all of us vowed that whatever happens, we would hold them all responsible for our poor friend’s demise.
The next morning, when “Good Gray” opened his eyes and said his first words, “I’m telling you, I crossed over to the other side. I kept seeing the light of two silverly moons. That’s what kept me going.” We were so happy just to see him conscious, we didn’t have the heart to tell him that the light he saw was just his double vision of the lamppost. But, who are we to say, anyway? The poor cart crossed over to the other side and made his way back.
So, we just have one thing to say to you, Pomegranate Supermarket: the next time you see scratches on those cars in your valet parking lot, remember the story of “Good Gray”. Maybe, then, you’ll remember that the sidewalks are for people to walk on, not for risking the lives of shopping carts.
