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| Bob's first trip to the grocery store since 2010. |
I have never attempted to do this before because it seemed like it would be a big pain in the you-know-what. I mean, how does one push a wheelchair AND a shopping cart? Not only that, there's the getting Bob ready for a trip, getting him into the wheelchair, scheduling the transportation etc. etc. and all that work just to shop at the grocery store seemed unthinkable. So, normally, Chris comes to sit with Bob once a week, while I run to the grocery store, run errands, etc.
But two weeks ago, when The Green Machine refused to start in the parking lot of the post office when I was out on my weekly errand run, I had to get the car towed over to Bubba's. Fortunately, the grocery store was in walking distance from the post office, so I hiked over to the store, got Bob's prescriptions filled, grabbed a few items and called a taxi to take me home. That ride cost $20.00. So talk about an expensive day, as the tow truck charged me $65.00. yikes.
Then, when Bubba told me it might take weeks or more to fix The Green Machine, I debated ways to get back to the grocery store for supplies. The taxi was way too expensive, it would cost me $40.00 to get there and back. And a bus, well, how much can one carry onto a bus? And I needed some heavy items, like cat litter... The big grocery store is too far away to walk to -- we have a smaller store in walking distance but they do not stock things like cat litter. So, I decided to do the unthinkable: take Bob with me. That way, we could ride the wheelchair transport and the cost would only be $4.00 each way.
I still didn't know how I was going to push the wheelchair and a shopping cart at the same time! But I figured, I'd play it by ear and if nothing else, park him in a corner somewhere while I did the shopping.
When we got to the grocery store, I stopped at the Customer Service desk and asked for help. Customer Service paged an employee to "assist a customer shopping". So I pushed Bob and the employee followed us with the cart, all through the store, and the wheelchair van driver helped me load and unload the groceries and it actually all worked out surprisingly well!
As Bob used to always say: Life is an adventure!
9 comments:
Sounds like a great adventure. Good to know there are stores that go that extra mile.
I hope Bob was invigorated by the adventure!
If I do grocery shopping, I often ask for help loading the car with groceries. I think the staff likes doing something out of their routine.
I'm so happy everything went well! Bob seems to be happy and you sound happy as well. See it wasn't that bad I'm glad you took the risk.
Yadira
What a great idea. And what a great grocery store to assist you with the shopping while pushing Bob in the wheelchair.
Though it required extra work, by the picture it appears Bob enjoyed the experience and it wasn't too tough for you. Perhaps do this shopping trip once a month with Bob to keep him involved with the shopping experience.
Hope you get the Green Machine repaired soon.
Lots of hugs & prayers, Dan
So glad you guys got out shopping. Probably turned out more fun and cheaper than even operating the green machine!Easy Street, the comprehensive hospital day rehab I attended has a space that is supposed to be fake versions of normal life things you can use to practice normal like. So for example they have a section set up as a Safeway grocery store (Safeway donated resources). They had me reach up to get things off the shelves, work on naming and identifying. I have had numeracy issues so they had me do tasks like pick up 5 oranges and put them in a weigh scale. Try and read the weight and then pick up the oranges again and put them in the shopping basket in my lap. Grocery shopping as an outing plus therapy!
It's good to see Bob outside. I'm glad you found a cheaper way to get transportation.
Ya know how much I dig this??? Tons!!! God love ya both AND those around helping you to GET IT DONE!!! Way to think outside the box for getting around town!!! Kudos and yipee!!! Mwah! (smooch noise)
Yes, I love pushing at my comfort boundary because it's ALWAYS such an adventure. Congrats on being able to come up with a solution.
I go the the local store everyone else avoids because of the policies a previous owner had.
The management is wonderful now and focusses on customer service. I once asked an employee to open an in door so that I could go out to my car to retrieve something I left in my car. She asked for my keys and went out to my car and got it for me.
I'm glad you found some kind people to help you. I have found that they're everywhere.
I agree.. there are a lot of wonderful kind people out there. That has been a positive in the past few years.
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