Man, that old timer would've loved watching me try to seal a gas line with nothing but confidence and a cheap wrench. Good on you for using the right dope anyway, the guy at the counter almost sent you down a real bad road.

I started doing the same thing after watching a guy in the rain at a Walmart here in Ohio. Best tip I can give is park next to a cart corral even if it means walking farther to the store. Sounds backwards but you skip the whole return trip since you're right there anyway. Another thing that helps is grabbing a stray cart on your way in, so you're already in the habit of moving them. Two minutes is nothing compared to what those guys deal with all day.

Yanking the box every time works until the fault is something a 20 minute wiggle test on wing would find, and now you've got an MEL you didn't need plus a removal and reinstall eating your shift. Half the intermittent stuff I've chased traces back to connectors and loom routing that show up way better under vibration and heat than sitting cold on a bench. Benching first just moves the guessing to a different room, it doesn't get rid of it.