The trolley: A story of cultural ignorance

This is my "shopping trolley."

It's one of my best friends. That is because we do not have a car here in Manchester, so when I buy groceries, I need to do so on foot. I also need to haul them a 10-minute walk back to our apartment and up two sets of stairs.

Having this trolley with wheels means I can carry a bit more in weight without hurting my arms or shoulders. Without it, the walk back home would be pretty miserable.

I noticed these trolleys for sale at various household supply shops when we arrived, and I saw a few people coming and going from grocery stores with them. It seemed like a genius idea. So immediately I went out and got one for myself.

For months, I was running back and forth to the store with my lovely little wheeled shopping bag, usually with an additional lighter bag on one shoulder.

One day, as I approached the college with my haul of groceries, one of the faculty passed me on his bicycle on his way home. He grinned, slowed down and said, "How cute! You remind me of my grandmother with your little shopping trolley."

I wasn't sure why it was his grandmother he specifically thought of. But we both laughed and went on our way.

A week or two later, the scene repeated itself, but this time with another faculty member -- an American -- who was coming toward me on foot. His grin was mischievous when he said, "You know that only old ladies use those shopping carts, right?" As an American who had lived here for years, he already knew something I didn't know, and took great pleasure in teasing me about it.

I didn't quite believe him, though. It seemed ridiculous that people of all ages who walk to the store wouldn't use these convenient and inexpensive devices to make transporting groceries much easier.

Later, I spent some time with a friend who had once lived in the UK for five years. I wanted her to take my side, to bolster my belief from her own experience as a foreigner that she and plenty of other young adults use shopping trolleys. So I broached the subject with her one day.

"Hey, you know those rolling shopping carts you can get, so you don't have to carry groceries home from the store?" I asked her.

"Oh yeah, the ones old ladies use?"

*Face-palm.*

I thought back to the people I'd seen using them, and couldn't remember who they were. But now that I was paying attention, I didn't exactly remember seeing a lot of healthy, robust young people rolling them around.

But, why? I wondered. They're so convenient and make shopping so much easier!

No one can give me an answer. It seems to be one of those cultural things that as an outsider I failed to anticipate or notice, and which has no logical explanation when one stops to think or ask about it. I wondered how many other people were smiling or smirking at me all those times I jauntily rolled the cart to and from the grocery store, being decidedly NOT an "old lady."

Since it seems that my mistake is only a little personally humiliating, and not a serious cultural taboo, I've decided I don't care if I do look like a little old lady. No way am I going to haul liters of milk and water and heavy cans of vegetables from bags on both shoulders all the way home every time I stock up on food.

And I still have a suspicion that somewhere, there must be clever younger people who refuse to conform to societal taboos and are making use of shopping trolleys when they don't have a car.