2011-08-26

Shopping Carts

The Safeway down the street from my apartment is across from the San Francisco ballpark and on the bottom of some kind of expensive condo complex.  It is therefore necessarily a compact grocery story, as are many in the urban areas, with narrower aisles and the people who come here tend to shop more for the moment rather than stocking up on several months supply of groceries.  And yet, the overwhelming majority of their shopping carts are the standard large full-sized shopping carts one would find in the wide suburban grocery stores.  I've seen at other places smaller versions of those carts in other stores.  I have no idea why this place doesn't have them.
However, this Safeway does have a VERY small set of these more befitting carts pictured on the right.  Just look at it, I don't even have to go into detail as to why this is such a well designed compact and space-efficient shopping cart. Ideal in every way except that they don't stack together as well.  But I go out of my way to get them when I see a free one.  I prefer them to shlepping around the hand-carry baskets which I almost always seem to overfill even when going in for just a "few" things, few enough to where a large cart is not only overkill, but is also embarrassing.  Actually, a "few" things usually includes a gallon of milk or a 2 liter or both, and I always hated carrying around those in a hand basket.  These carts are the perfect balance between the two. It is now my opinion that every compact or semi-compact or heck every grocery store in general (since not everyone needs a full cart even there) should keep a healthy supply of these.

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