Ethical Shopping Carts Track Calories, Food Miles
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.12.07
My dad once had a talking Chrysler that would say "a door is ajar" or "fuel is low". When asked why he would buy a car that nags him, he replied "it makes me feel at home." Some may feel that way about the new shopping cart being floated by Electronic Data Systems Corp; it has a bar code scanner and screen that will give information about calories, nutrition, ethical sourcing and food miles, and keep a running total for you.
"Shoppers want bar-code readers on their trolleys [shopping carts] to calculate the nutritional content and tell them when they have blown their calorific budget," said EDS' Sion Roberts, director of consumer industries and retail. ::Scificom and ::computerworld
This shopper would rather utilise small local organic shops than use that... still, it's a good idea for those who do use the supermarkets.
This idea is cool - not entirely new, they've been testing in several stores in NE US, and I'm sure other places, for years now.
I think this would be useful, too, since it can calculate your $$ total, including tax, to keep me in budget! :D
excellent, another device we don't need to suck electricity from the grid. Silly lemmings.
Horrible idea. How much do we have to remove personal responsibility from our lives?
FactoBrunt, you sound smugly satisfied that you don't rely upon grocery stores to shop. Rather, I suspect you would rather go to store after store after store to find the items that you need. And unless you live in a large city, that invariably means driving. Don't you think that it is environmenally more friendly for people to shop in one place rather than having them drive all over the place for each item? I really can't give a flying fig newton what you do with your life, but please don't delude yourself into thinking that you are somehow more virtuous than "those who do use the supermarkets."
Looks like a Fisher Price Busy Box activity crib toy. I hope it has a built in GPS (Grocery positioning system).