Remember the days as a toddler when we would go grocery shopping with our family and think we were in food heaven? We wanted to run wild and free and touch everything in our sight. Our parents would place us in the cart and expect us to stay put and not move. However, we would still reach as far as we could, our bodies halfway out the cart, to touch everything down the aisle. We were willing to risk our lives at the thought of adventure. For this exact reason our group chose the seatbelt of a shopping cart in the SweetBay market off of Fowler Street as our public health example.
Seatbelts in shopping carts are a necessary preventative measure for the safety of children. These straps greatly help the parents during shopping as a child can be kept in one spot without possible injury. The parents have increased mobility since they can step away from the cart for a moment to grab an item, without having to worry about a possible horror accident. Keeping the child in one area ensures that he or she can’t wander off alone as a parents’ full attention cannot be on the child while shopping. The seatbelt allows the customer to enjoy their experience more and everyone will benefit.
A key essential for safety is providing a spot just for the little one on the cart. The larger area of the cart isn’t secure, children could easily fall out if they stood up, and they would not be within reaching distance of Mom or Dad while the parent pushed the cart.
We noticed that some of the shopping carts’ seat belts were frayed and broken, a public health concern. These seat belts are there for the safety of the child, but if unusable a child’s health and even life could be endangered. Stores ought to properly maintain the seatbelts on these carts. This is a major liability for the store and if an accident were to occur the store could possibly face lawsuits. As a customer we expect the best service possible because we deserve that and we want to ensure our safety for our family is taken into consideration.
An example of how important the seatbelt of a shopping cart is was shared from one of our group members. When the group member’s brother was a couple years old, he was sitting in a shopping cart without the seatbelt on. His mother had turned away for a moment to grab an item off the shelf. In this short space of time, the energetic little boy disobeyed his mother’s command to sit still in the cart (of course). He stood up quickly, placing his little hands on the edge of the cart rail to peer around. But with his young clumsiness, he misjudged his balance and tumbled out of the cart onto the linoleum floor of the supermarket. The first-time mother’s heart stopped when she heard his fall, but miraculously, the young one was uninjured. From then on, she always strapped her child into the cart. When you go shopping make sure to grab a cart with a working seatbelt and look out for your child or loved ones safety!
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