Reply #19: The new trend in shopping carts seems to be to outfit them with electronic devices [View All]

[Berry Cool]

that keep them "corraled" within a certain radius of the store by auto-locking the wheels when they pass the "'invisible perimeter" past which they cannot travel. It's fine with me, so long as I know that's what I'm working with. Saves a lot of cart-moving work for the employees, saves the stores money on replacing lost carts, discourages people from stealing and abandoning carts and leaving them around cluttering up the neighborhood, and also eliminates the need for those ugly cement posts right around the outside of the store that scream "This is an inner-city neighborhood where people steal shopping carts unless we pen them in."

At the Save A Lot stores, you also bag your own groceries (paper, plastic or reusable bag). I actually prefer packing my own because it annoys me to no end the way baggers bag stuff under the assumption that everyone is driving the stuff home in a motor vehicle and thus can accommodate an infinite number of bags. It's almost as if they pride themselves on packing the minimum number of items into the maximum number of bags. And they never bag cat litter at all--they figure you'll just pick it up by the handle and put it in your car. Even if you don't have one.

On a bike, I have found using the self-checkout to be the best option, because then I can pack the way I know I will best be able to carry the stuff, and for maximum bag use. Sometimes I get help from a bagger on efficiently packing my little-old-lady wire cart, too. You'd be amazed how much you can get into one once you ditch any bag that makes it harder to find room for it all and keep only the ones you need to prevent little stuff from slipping through the holes.