Allie in Ypsilanti, Michigan was walking into her local Target store when she noticed this little art installation on the sidewalk outside. Granted, she says, “The closest Wal-Mart is about two miles away, and I have no idea how the cart got there either.”
The chalk artist had also drawn purple arrows across the parking lot in the direction of the Wal-Mart, and while Allie says she didn’t check to see if the chalk lines extended all the way to the store, “drawing the arrows but not taking the cart back would have been pretty P-A.”
![Thi [sic] is from Wal-Mart. How did it get here?](http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6142/6027061255_c7df3a0f8f_o.jpg "Thi [sic] is from Wal-Mart. How did it get here?")
Meanwhile, Michi spotted this piece of guerilla knitwork chained to a post near NYU. (“It was, on inspection, empty.”)
related: To whoever left this cart here — you are precisely what is wrong with America!
extra credit: Why Wal-Mart’s current business model is doomed [AdAge]
39 responses so far ↓
#1
Carrie
Must be a really nasty Wal-Mart if the carts run away from it….
Aug 24, 2011 at 8:57 pm rating: 32
#2
Quite Contrary
The cart looks like it’s from Sam’s first store in Bentonville, Arkansas after a particularly rough winter.
Aug 24, 2011 at 8:59 pm rating: 9
#3
syd
The shadow has a weiner.
Aug 24, 2011 at 9:14 pm rating: 49
#4
Abdul
A missing “S”, or an extra “I”? dun dun dun
Aug 24, 2011 at 9:35 pm rating: 7
#5
HannahB
I used to work for a Kohls and it was amazing the different shopping carts people would bring in. There was a home depot nearby and people kept bringing in one of those huge children carts they have there, it was so big it didn’t fit down the aisles. We kept getting rid of it but people still brought it in and complaining it was to big thinking it was ours.
Aug 24, 2011 at 9:37 pm rating: 15
#6
pony girl
A PANote writer who is a Talking Heads fan.
Cool.
Aug 24, 2011 at 10:09 pm rating: 7
#7
Mrs.Beasley
The cart looks as if it has seen better days. A little too rusty even for Wal-Mart to want it back. Ypsi does have some homeless folks, so maybe the cart has been living on the street for a while, too.
Bottom line: Who cares how it got there? Suggest the chalk-bearer minds his/her own beeswax.
Aug 24, 2011 at 10:13 pm rating: 3
#8
havingfitz
How did it get here? Well, when a mommy cart and a daddy cart love each other very much…
Aug 25, 2011 at 12:23 am rating: 34
#9
Get on your bikes and ride
Why so sure the chalk writer is referring to the shopping cart? I see an arrow pointed directly at a small poo-like piece of crud (or is it a Goober? Raisinet? Ken’s shoe?). In any case I’ve seen uglier things come from Walmart, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Aug 25, 2011 at 12:37 am rating: 4
#10
MD
Let me just say, I am in full and unwavering support of question marks rendered as sperm.
It just gives a whole new angle to interrogatives…
Aug 25, 2011 at 5:19 am rating: 1
#11
MD
Oh wait, wait up!
I have to add that our local Michaels probably used a good half dozen jumbo tubs of chalk, and their entire front entrance sidewalk cement, to sketch down this gorgeous ‘Welcome to Michaels / Welcome to Summer / Step into Fun!’ kind of thing. It was actually so beautiful, I felt bad walking on it to get into the store.
I also know that with the employment options we’ve had here the past few *decades*, it was certainly laid down by a person with at least one university degree.
And I couldn’t help but step into that person on their knees, scribbling furiously, and thinking:
“I get PAID to play with CHALK!”
(*While Shaking and Crying with pure glee*)
OR
“I get PAID to play with CHALK!”
(*Just Crying*)
Aug 25, 2011 at 5:37 am rating: 5
#12
Beesus
I am secretly hoping this is the first in a series of art installations.
“This is a tree? HOW OLD IS THIS TREE?”
“This is your mom. WHY IS SHE CRYING?”
Aug 25, 2011 at 8:53 am rating: 13
#13
Jimmy James
Maybe someone found it one mile from Wal-Mart (and one mile from Target) and thought they were returning it to the right place.
Aug 25, 2011 at 8:56 am rating: 3
#14
Preemptive "Cool Story, Bro"
I definitely did this once- I found a cart a block or so from my apartment , and I said to myself, “I’m walking to Safeway anyway, I’ll return this while I’m at it. I’m so considerate!” Then I got there and realized with a sinking feeling that it matched none of the carts in the parking lot. I was leaving town the next day, so I don’t know if he was accepted by his new family, (maybe they could think of him as an exchange student?) or if he was left outside and ostracized like the cart above.
Aug 25, 2011 at 8:59 am rating: 30
#15
Wade
And you may find yourself sitting in a Walmart rack
And you may find yourself in another part of Ypsilanti
And you may find yourself beside the wall of a large Target store
And you may find yourself by a hideous sign, with purple chalk arrows
And you may ask yourself-Well…How did I get here?
Aug 25, 2011 at 1:25 pm rating: 29
#16
We shall speak anon
Ypsilanti is “Itnalispy” backwards.
Aug 26, 2011 at 3:09 pm rating: 2
#17
Benjamin
I lived at apartment complex once a long time ago, that was near a grocery store. I’d often watch people literally pushing their carts up the hill back to their house, than they would leave the cart in the parking lot of the complex.
This story reminded me of that…
Aug 29, 2011 at 2:30 am rating: 0
#18
Noelegy
Pretty sure that’s crochet, not knitting, on that second basket.
Aug 30, 2011 at 3:05 pm rating: 14
#19
Mae
I think that cart must have been done by Agata Olek, I saw another installation she did on another website a year or so ago and looked her up:
http://agataolek.com/home.html
It’s worth checking out.
Aug 31, 2011 at 5:42 pm rating: 5
#20
Rei
I never actually wonder why carts are in weird places around where I live. We have a serious lack of public transportation and if you have no car and can’t afford a taxi it would honestly be the only logical choice if you had to carry a huge amount of groceries and couldn’t afford one of those collapsible carts. :/
Aug 31, 2011 at 9:48 pm rating: 2
#21
Cris
That is crocheted, not knit.
Sep 6, 2011 at 1:59 pm rating: 2
#22
Kate
It had to be the Ypsi trolls….. that what we told the police when they came to tow the washtenaw golf club’s golfcart from our front yard …. 2 miles away
Sep 8, 2011 at 7:42 pm rating: 0
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