Rusty Saber: Shopping carts go high-tech with scanners, alarms

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Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.|ret||ret||tab|

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Is there a point where we say that technology has gone as far as it needs to go? I doubt it; but if it were to come, it might be in the shopping cart industry. |ret||ret||tab|

What do you expect from a shopping cart? I don't know about you, but I want it to be sturdy enough to get my purchases to the checkout line without falling apart. And I want one with four wheels, all of which turn at about the same time and in the same general direction. |ret||ret||tab|

While it can be difficult to find such a cart, I don't require anything beyond the benchmarks of sturdiness and four rolling wheels. If there is a need for new technology, I opt for it to be in improving these features. |ret||ret||tab|

Well, shopping cart technology is running amok. In researching an earlier column where I vented my opposition to supermarket self-checkout lanes, I was aghast to learn about shopping carts that can be equipped to scan items as they are tossed into the cart. Surely, I thought, cart technology can't go beyond this. |ret||ret||tab|

I was wrong. In Britain, a supermarket is experimenting with a 10-speed shopping cart. That's not a typo; it is a shopping cart, not a bicycle. It's called the Trim Trolley, which apparently has a rear wheel with adjustable resistance settings. Depending on how much exercise one desires, a monitor is installed on the push bar that measures heart rate and number of calories burned. Walk for 40 minutes around the store with resistance set at seven and 160 calories are burned. Set resistance at 10 and 280 calories can go away. |ret||ret||tab|

Let me see if I have this straight: Customers combine grocery shopping and a 40-minute workout. On a good shopping-exercise day, a store could be full of people huffing and puffing, pushing carts around the store for 40 minutes. That raises a concern: Exercisers need to keep the heart rate up; I assume they wouldn't want to interfere with the workout by stopping to put items in the carts. So, why would the store want the high tech carts? |ret||ret||tab|

Perhaps the most compelling barrier to its widespread use is that the Trim Trolley will sell for a nifty $887. Another reason might be that stores would prefer customers use the carts to carry items rather than to burn calories. There is a time to workout and a time for shopping; it's probably best if the two don't meet. |ret||ret||tab|

Elsewhere in the world of carts: Runaway shopping carts have become problematic for stores and local government. It's an unfortunate fact that people will steal anything, including shopping carts. The store's loss is financial; the average cost of a cart is $125. |ret||ret||tab|

Cities have little tolerance for carts abandoned on city streets. Homeless people steal them for carrying their worldly goods. Teenagers steal them just because they are there. Some who walk to the store take the cart and abandon it after unloading items. In some cities, they become a hazard, especially near large apartment complexes. |ret||ret||tab|

City governments have begun to levy fines against stores for stray carts found wandering about city streets. While some stores believe the fines are unfair and are fighting them, others try to prevent thefts. High tech to the rescue: A gizmo can be attached to carts that sets off loud two-tone beeps to draw attention to the thief when the cart leaves the store's parking lot. It's like automobile alarm systems. |ret||ret||tab|

The flaw in this scheme is that most folks don't pay much attention to clanging car alarms. Not to fear. If the cart continues to move forward, eventually the front wheel will lock. A similar device doesn't fool with the beeps; it locks the wheels if the cart leaves the parking lot. Another doodad will allow the cart to go only in circles once away from the store. I've used carts in the store that won't move in a straight line.|ret||ret||tab|

Alas, shopping cart technology is here to stay.|ret||ret||tab|

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