Many times my New Year resolutions are gone by the end of January. This year, I didn’t even consciously elect a resolution, and then one came my way. So for 2024, I choose to find a way to do one act of kindness that benefits my community each month.
For January, the benefactor of my act was the North Market, plus all who shop there. A shopping cart from the North Market had been taken from the store at 44th and Humboldt and left at the corner of at 49th and Emerson. I saw the cart at the corner while driving my car, and 7-10 days later it was still there while I was out for a walk. I chose then to collect the cart and walk it back to the store rather than continue with my original course.
When I arrived, I spoke with Kent, a manager at North Market, to ask about the loss of their carts. Kent said that they had just put out the last of the carts from the initial purchase. The cost to purchase new carts will be an additional expense to the customers, and that is not what anyone wants. I also asked about the cost to put the automatic locks on shopping carts when taken off the property, and he said that cost is very high as well.
As a final touch to my community kindness act for January, I am encouraging those that take the carts off the North Market property to return them to the store as soon as possible. I understand that there are residents living close to the store that use them to get their groceries home. It would be an act of kindness to fellow shoppers for the borrower to empty the cart as soon they get home and then walk the shopping cart back to the store for others to use.
I would like to encourage others to write to the Camden Community News with their acts of Community Kindness. Submissions can be sent to CCN@tds.net and we will publish a few of those stories.