Grocery Carts in Grocery Stores in Panama

Panamanians don’t let you push your grocery cart through when you get to the cash. In fact, most of the aisles in the grocery stores are so narrow, they wouldn’t fit through there anyway.

Because they don’t allow this, you have to leave the cart behind you as you walk through towards the cashier, or if you are polite, push it away & angle it off to the side so the next person in line can move forward. Sometimes the person behind you has to help you.

Then all the carriages are cluttered near the entrance to each checkout line although the boys who pack generally take them away quickly, but still, it’s very confusing & messy & just a pain.

Maybe they do this so people don’t steal things, but I don’t even think there’s a place to put items on the bottom of the carriage & the cashier could check each cart before it goes through as well as the boys who pack your groceries.

Just one more ignorant not well thought out way of doing things in Panama. This doesn’t aggravate me like other things do, but I just thought I should let you know as I remember being very confused the first time I stepped into a grocery store & wasn’t allowed to push my cart through.