On a somewhat recent outing, I had some random woman glare at me for picking up my cane and putting it in the shopping cart. I wanted to ask her if she'd ever tried steering a cart with one hand.
Did you put it in the basket part of the cart or hook it over the handlebar? Back when I just used canes, I'd hook them over the bar that you use to push the cart. But one twit once asked why I didn't just put my walker in the cart.
I told him that:
A. It would take up too much room, even folded; there wouldn't be room for much else.
B. It was too heavy for me to lift to get it in and out.
C. Considering that I pushed that thing over asphalt, sidewalks, grass, ice, snow, through mud puddles, and these surfaces weren't sterilized, the wheels weren't the cleanest things either, and he really wanted me to put that in a grocery cart where people put FOOD?
Nowadays, I've got a few plastic hooks I hang over the walker handles so I can carry a few extra bags. Some people think that's a great idea. Others look at me like I'm taking more than my fair share of space on the planet. Sometimes it's hard to get past people, and I move my bags as far out of the way as I can. I just explain that I can't use both a walker and cart at the same time, so this is the best compromise I could figure out. Most people think it over and realize, "Yeah, makes sense."
And the store security guys have never given me static, nor have the cashiers. The only one who ever did was one of those stock clerks. I told him that I've been doing my shopping this way for a very long time, the store employees didn't have a problem (any floorwalkers around haven't indicated they think I plan to steal anything), so he shut up about it.
