08 July 2011

Buggies.

I have a lot of memories of the grocery store.  In a household with 7 people, we made lots of grocery trips.  Even shopping for a week at a time, my mom would have to get several gallons of milk & more groceries than she had room in the cabinets for.

There were 2 grocery stores we frequented.  There was Ingles, the 'big' store that we did our weekly large shopping trip at, and then there was Smoky Mountain Grocery, the 'little' store that mom did quick stop-ins after school if we needed just a couple of things.  Kind of like running in a smaller store to avoid waiting in line at Wal-Mart.

I loved those grocery trips, mainly because the employees thought I was a cute kid & would always joke around with me.  One guy called me Mary Elizabeth every single time.  I'm not sure why, but it didn't matter.  That's also where I learned the phrase 'Better put that bottom lip back in before you trip over it.'  I'm guessing I didn't get the candybar I wanted?

Then, when I turned 16 I got my first job at that same Ingles & I have to tell ya, I was the best little cashier you'd ever see.  It made sense to me-- people didn't want to stand in line-- they wanted me to ring up their groceries & be on their way.

That's also the same store where I got caught kissing a boy in the cooler.

One of my favorite things as a kid was to ride underneath the buggy.

Buggy?

You know... like a shopping cart.

Now that we all know who is from the North & who is from the South...

I loved to ride under the buggy.  It meant you were responsible enough to be trusted with it, since you had to keep your hands in your lap so you didn't get the caught in the wheels!

But after mentioning that to someone awhile back, they wondered how small you had to be to fit under a buggy.  It took me a minute to realize that buggies are totally different at Ingles!  Not only are they different, but I couldn't find a picture of one of them anywhere on Google!  So for your viewing pleasure, I present to you, a regular buggy:


Regular, normal, whatever.

And here... is an Ingles buggy!


Excuse the awesome picture-- like I said, Google couldn't bring up an image even close, so luckily, I had to use a cart in a recent photo session I did!  We didn't take the cart for this purpose, we just found it in a back alley.

The part where the dress is folds up over the front so it can be easily stored.  I realize it probably looks weird to anyone who hasn't been to Ingles, but to me, it's home.  Groceries go in the top part, dog food on the very bottom, and that little shelf halfway in between holds a couple of gallons of milk, or cleaning chemicals to keep them away from food.

Also, the front opens up like a tailgate so you can slide the groceries out of the basket & onto the counter easily!

But my favorite buggy of all time?  Behold the smaller Kroger buggy!  It can zip around corners like those fancy cars in the commercials.  Bonus?  If I can't fit it all in this buggy, then I'm buying too much!


The downside?  You can't fit a child in there, so I only have about 6.5 more months to use my favorite buggy!

What do you call it?  A buggy?  A cart?  A grocery cart?  Something else?
What's your favorite kind?
Have you seen anything like the Ingles buggy anywhere else?  I'm sure they use them somewhere else, but where??

4 comments:

Erin Sansotta said...

We used the "ride beneath" kind as a kid too at a store called Carrs. My poor mom had to lug around a cart of groceries with the smallest kid in the front, one hanging off the end and one underneath. One unfortunate soul had to walk.

Erin Sansotta said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN said...

Thanks for the mention. We also have those small carts at many stores now. Customers love them for quick trips.

JRose said...

I heart the tiny ones! I have an aversion to pushing big shopping carts as it makes me feel too domestic, but the little ones feel right. I'll push that tiny cart anywhere and I don't care who sees me!

And they have carts similar to your Ingles carts at Food Lion in Florida, but I've not seen them elsewhere, personally.

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