It's probably all tied in with cars and the suburban lifestyle common in the
US. A shopping cart is used to get groceries the short distance from inside
the store to your car in the store's parking lot. There are shopping carts
everywhere, except in dense urban areas. It would be easy to take one and
use it to keep one's possessions together.
In the dense urban areas, the homeless aren't as clearly identified. Often
even well-off people dress very poorly. If you're carrying a big backpack or
duffel bag, you are generally considered to be passing through, not a
resident. Even the homeless seem to stake out an area that is home.
A homeless guy had a plastic tent home on a river bank near where I work. He
probably could have stayed there except he didn't get rid of his garbage.
The pile got bigger and bigger and needed to be cleaned up.
-jeff
----Original Message Follows----
From: Manuel Viet <oly@xxxxxxxxxx>
I'm afraid I fell for french centrism. It's not very uncommon for french
beggars to have a shopping cart, but many more tend to prefer carrying a
bag.
I don't know why, but it now strikes me that in movies, US homeless always
go
with a shopping cart - something more unusual here.
Manuel Viet
Le mardi 21 Février 2006 18:32, Jeff Keller a écrit :
> It's interesting that you see the person as homeless. If he/she had a
> shopping cart filled with stuff, then I would think homeless.
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