Crunched By Customers’ Cars––

Little Red Wagons May Become Lawn Art

By Dottie Evans

Like most nursery business owners, Tom Johnson of Lexington Gardens likes to have a fleet of little red Radio Flyer wagons on hand for his customers’ convenience.

Actually, Mr Johnson has 45 wagons in all, and he takes good care of them. He tries to keep their wheels oiled and their handles repaired, so customers can use them as they wander up and down the outside aisles, selecting plants.

Later on, customers usually drag their laden wagons past the checkers and their purchases are tallied. So far, so good, and the system seems seamless.

Where it breaks down, literally, is in the parking lot.

Unfortunately, Mr Johnson has no control at all over what happens to those wagons once they go out the door and customers prepare to unload the plants into their vehicles. To put it bluntly, he’s lost a few.

“This is my casualty pile, hazards of the trade,” Mr Johnson said as he led a visitor into a chain-link fenced storage area out back. He pointed to a heap of wagons no longer in service, awaiting an unknown fate.

Some were missing a couple of wheels, or they had suffered heavy blows. Their axles and yokes were bent, their handles were crunched, and their sides were dented.

Mr Johnson thought he might take a welding torch and create a “terrific piece of metal sculpture” from the wagon remnants.

How Two Wagons Came To A Very Bad End

“I happened to be watching this woman load her car with plants, but she wasn’t aware I was,” Mr Johnson said.

“She had parked the wagon in front of her car and was carrying her plants around behind to put them into the trunk. Then she closed it, got inside, started the car and drove forward right into the wagon.

“I saw her stop, put the car in reverse, get out and look at her front license plate that was now badly crumpled. She stared at it for a moment, then ripped the plate off, tossed it inside the car, and drove off leaving the damaged wagon in the middle of the parking lot.

“Another time was even worse,” Mr Johnson said.

“Again, a customer had parked a wagon in front of her car and after unloading it, forgot it was there and drove right over it. Only this time, the wagon was jammed underneath, her front wheels were totally off the ground and she couldn’t move the car at all.”

Strangely, he added, the wagon was OK at that point.

Very embarrassed, the customer had to come back inside to report the accident and get help. Nursery staff managed to pry the wagon free using a forklift but it was damaged in the process.

One more little red wagon headed for Tom Johnson’s casualty pile.