Vons supermarket made me fall onto my baby boy today! While leaving the store empty-handed because they had neither of the vegetables I came for, I was wheeling him in the child seat of the cart back out to the car when the wheels locked up right inside the store entrance, freezing the cart in place like it had hit an invisible wall. Brendan's head snapped back from the sudden stop as I simultaneously hit the handlebar and smashed down onto my little guy with my upper torso, completely unprepared to stop suddenly.
An employee explained that the wheels now have a locking mechanism if the cart doesn't go through the checkout line. Because if I didn't buy anything, apparently they assume I must be stealing something.
Brendan and I were stunned, but I think he's okay. It could have been worse. This mechanism is dangerous.
What happened to audible warnings at store exits? Everyone is familiar with those falsly going off, by the way, so expanding on the concept with physical mechanisms to interfere with someone's movement seems to carry the obvious risk of unintentional activation as well.
Did they seriously think it would be a good idea to design a metal box on wheels with a built-in child seat to come to a complete, sudden stop while a full-grown adult is advancing directly towards the part designd to hold a child?
It's also pretty insulting to be essentially physically detained--captured--by a store's device, like some kind of criminal. Hey, Vons! I'm allowed to leave without buying anything, which is not probable cause for smashing my family into an invisible wall.
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