It happens all of the time to me at Sam's Club. I hate that. You really have to be careful that your hands are only touching the plastic cover on the handle in front of you. Heaven forbid your hands are off to the side a bit because ZAP. It's not enough to curl your hair, but it's enough to let you know you've been bitten.
As far as I can remember, Sam's Club is the only place that's happened to me. Until today.
Ron and I went to Walmart today for a few things. I'm walking through the store pushing the cart that contains one new cat toy. (Don't judge me, I KNOW I need a 12 step program for cats or something! But, I digress.) Suddenly, ZAP . . . ZAP . . . ZAP.
Now I'm pissed. It hurts! Shopping at Walmart shouldn't be THAT painful.
I said something out loud to Ron that I was getting shocked from the cart. Some random stranger walking the other way stopped to talk to us to explain why I was getting zapped.
It had something to do with the cement floor, but the bottom line was that some of the carts had a grounding strip hanging down the front of the cart and that will prevent the electric shocks that were biting my hands. Sure enough, the cart I had was missing its grounding strip.
This sounded like a believable story, so I thanked him for explaining that to me, and I left my cart right there for Walmart to put away. I don't do things like that in a store but I had had enough. I carried my cat toy (that will be a new blog!) to the cashiers and got checked out.
As we were walking out, I saw all of the carts lined up at the exit/entrance. Being a blogger, of COURSE I have my camera on me. I went to the first two carts in line and sure enough, one had a grounding strip and one didn't. This one has a grounding strip:
And this cart is missing its grounding strip.
The above cart was the first one in a line and you can kinda see that the cart behind it has the grounding strip.
Now, being a blogger who carries a camera almost everywhere, I can tell you, I get looks from people. Especially when I'm bending down, taking pictures of strange things! Some guy had just come into the store and went to take this cart without the grounding strip and of course asked me what in the hell I was doing. He said it nicer, but that was the meaning of his question. I explained to him what the other random stranger told me and that since I am a blogger, it is my duty to get this information out to the public.
I pulled this cart off of the line and had him take the second cart since it had a grounding strip. He took the cart, but walked off muttering something to himself. I might have heard the word "crazy" in there but I'm not sure. So, of course, I yelled back at him "you're welcome! I just saved your LIFE!"
I am hoping I can save another life with this handy bit of information. This was your public service announcement # 5. I know from now on, I will be looking at MY shopping carts a little closer before just grabbing the first one in line.
2 comments:
You always amuse me with the way you are telling stories. I LOVE the way you tell them. I'm always sitting in front of my monitor with a big smile on my face!
Well, you can also avoid this pain easily if you wear long sleeves. Just touch the cart through the end of your sleeves. Or first touch the cart with the elbow (which is covered by some fabric of your Tee). If you are "zapped" by darkness, you can see that there is a little lightning between your finger and the item which is charged with electricity, just like theo nes in a thunderstorm, only much smaller. And it is the high temperature of the lightning that causes the pain. Some fabric or a paper handkerchief will avoid that your skin gets directly contact to the heat of the little lightning.
I'm with you, I also HATE these Zaps! When my kitchen floor was new it was the same every time I touched the handle of a cupboard. Zap, zap, zap, zap ...
I suspect some kid stuck that plastic wiretie on there because he was bored.
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