Recently, I wrote a column about how handicapped-friendly Las Vegas was to those who rely on scooters, motorized chairs and wheelchairs. Let me bring to your attention the exact opposite…Target at the Erskine Street exit off the Belt Parkway.Sunday, my wife and I decided to go to Target at the Gateway Shopping Plaza. We opted to have dinner first at Olive Garden. After an hour and 15 minute wait we finally got our table.It was close to 6:30 p.m. when we finished and drove to Target. Sharon dropped me off and I painfully walked to the store spotting a motorized scooter right by the security guard.
I pointed to the scooter and the guard told me it was charging up. Were there any others in the store? Now, in comparison to other Targets I’ve been to, this local Target is huge with an enormous base of nearby customers, as well as thousands of motorists driving from the Belt Parkway.By the store are many handicapped parking spots, but not nearly enough for all.If you think the handicapped parking spots were scarce you should have seen the number of working motorized shopping carts that were available…NONE! I told the guard that I would sit on the broken scooter until my wife came to scout one for me. The guard said that the store only has five and those that weren’t working needed heavy recharging.I spotted one that was being returned and that security guard said it needed charging very badly and would only move at a snail’s pace. I told him I don’t care how slow it was moving as long as it took me around the store so I could shop for my necessities. So I got on this scooter that went no miles an hour and slowly, very, very slowly went around the store.
At the rear of the store was this giant sign saying how Target donates 3 million dollars every week to the school communities. How about the handicapped community?Under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) many stores, agencies and firms have to make concessions accommodating the handicapped…clearly this Target with only five motorized shopping carts was not one of those.
Yet, I like Target and enjoy shopping there in nearby Long Island, as well as nearby stores with no problem. Those stores, with the exception of Staten Island and Brooklyn, always have an adequate number of motorized shopping carts.
I can only shop in stores and malls that provide motorized carts for the handicapped.I shop at the Walmart in Massapequa near my children and if Target ever saw how much of my business they are losing, they would buy a motorized shopping cart exclusively for me.But I realize business is business and I would rather have many carts available to those that need them, than have one reserved just for me. Target should stop spending so much money on advertisements and TV commercials…spend one percent of that unbelievable cost to provide motorized shopping carts for the handicapped at their stores instead and comply in spirit with the ADA.This column and my letters to Target and the ADA will be published in a future column.
Screech at you next week!
