07-19-2011, 04:37 AM
The shopping cart was invented by the owner of the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain in the late 1930's. Prior to this invention people only purchased what would fit into a basket. The shopping cart "revolutionized" shopping because people went from grabbing 5-10 items per shopping trip to filling up the trunk of their car. Large paper bags and courtesy carry-out service sealed the deal.
Stores aren't going to stop providing an easy way for you to spend the most amount of money you can. Stores pretend to like the cheap reuseable bags because "green" is good for their image but they have already noticed that people who use them are only purchasing as many items that will fit inside of them. These are the people who aren't grabbing the huge shopping carts. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule but most people bringing their own bags in are grabbing the little baskets and not pushing big shopping carts around. This is not the direction retail stores want to go. They want to give you as large of a cart as possible and encourage you to fill it up. That much stuff isn't going to fit in 3 or 4 reuseable bags.
I'm not being disingenous, I have personally owned a large retail store, have been to trade shows, and read the trade magazines. Stores are going to fight any type of bag ban tooth and nail, and they will not stop providing a conveyance to get their products to your car unless they have to. Consumers don't like using the used cardboard boxes at the store because 3 or 4 of them fills up a garbage can. We tried that at our store and people hated them. In a perfect world they would have recycled them but not everybody does that. Most people don't even want to crush them down to a smaller size. And, the boxes come in such a huge assortment of sizes it is impossible to stack or arrange them, and carrying them is clumsy.
Stores aren't going to stop providing an easy way for you to spend the most amount of money you can. Stores pretend to like the cheap reuseable bags because "green" is good for their image but they have already noticed that people who use them are only purchasing as many items that will fit inside of them. These are the people who aren't grabbing the huge shopping carts. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule but most people bringing their own bags in are grabbing the little baskets and not pushing big shopping carts around. This is not the direction retail stores want to go. They want to give you as large of a cart as possible and encourage you to fill it up. That much stuff isn't going to fit in 3 or 4 reuseable bags.
I'm not being disingenous, I have personally owned a large retail store, have been to trade shows, and read the trade magazines. Stores are going to fight any type of bag ban tooth and nail, and they will not stop providing a conveyance to get their products to your car unless they have to. Consumers don't like using the used cardboard boxes at the store because 3 or 4 of them fills up a garbage can. We tried that at our store and people hated them. In a perfect world they would have recycled them but not everybody does that. Most people don't even want to crush them down to a smaller size. And, the boxes come in such a huge assortment of sizes it is impossible to stack or arrange them, and carrying them is clumsy.