Shopping Containers: Handbaskets Inside Shopping Carts

Roger Knights Shipping containers reduced cargo handling by 90% and thereby facilitated ocean shipping. Shopping containershandbaskets contained within a shopping cart can similarly reduce cargo handling at the checkout lane. Only two or three handbaskets need be lifted out, not 20 or 30 pieces of cargo. Heres how it works: Place a pair of handbaskets sidewise inside your shopping cart. (Safeways shopping carts at my location (West Seattle) are wide enough to allow this.) If you expect you might need more than two handbaskets, wedge two more (nested), bottom first, onto the lower level, into the gap facing you. When the first two handbaskets are filled, lift out the second pair and place them atop the two full baskets. Now fill the empty baskets.

Other advantages are that: You can immediately get all your items onto the conveyor belt, because theyre more densely packed (tight together and stacked atop one another)you dont have to wait as long for the belt to advance to make room; so: 2. Youre released earlier from unloading and thus have more time to swipe your cards, or fill out your check, so youre less frazzled and error-prone. 3. Theres no chance of goods getting tipped over or of certain round groceries rolling off the conveyor belt. 4. Theres more chance of his items staying grouped when they are packed. E.g., since presumably all produce is in one handbasket, all cans & bottles in another, all the rest in a third, this will result in more grouping in shopping bags as well. These will be easier to cope with at home, since the contents of each bag will (more likely) be headed for the same destination (e.g., to the fridge, freezer, or kitchen cabinet).
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Supermarkets should test, using their employees as subjects, whether shoppers would enjoy this technique and whether to other benefits are real. If so, they should use signage to encourage shoppers to employ it. Isnt it amazing that no one's thought of this (or anyway publicized this) before? (The clerks to whom I demonstrated it wonderingly indicated theyd never seen the like.) Note: The cashiers who emptied the baskets said it was no harder for them to do so than to grab individual items off the conveyer belt, even though a bit more lifting was required. I suspect this extra lifting is offset by not having to worry about knocking over a milk carton while leaning out over the belt to pluck out all grocery items of a single type. (E.g., all the avocados, etc., are together (in the basket) and are right at hand.) PS: because four baskets can be stored, nested, on the carts lower level, up to six handbaskets in total could be employed. This would enable shoppers to buy a large quantity of items without overflowing their cart. The store wouldnt need to buy a few super-size shopping carts to accommodate big spenders. Incidentally, at wholesale-club stores individual items neednt be placed onto the conveyor belt, because shoppers buy boxed items. Only their boxes need be lifted This, I believe, is a hidden attraction of shopping at such places. Supermarkets should counter this appeal by promoting use of shopping containers.

[Short Version] Shop with Handbaskets Inside Your Shopping Cart

Roger Knights / (205 words)

Theres a lot of time and effort wasted at a supermarkets checkout lane if you unload your shopping cart item by item. Unloading is faster if you load your items into handbaskets inside the shopping cart. Then you can just lift them out. Whats more, you can get all your items out of the cart sooner, because theyre more densely packed (being tight together and stacked up), so you dont need to wait for more room on the conveyor belt to accommodate them. This releases you earlier from unloading and gives you more time to swipe your cards, or fill out your check, which means youre less frazzled and error-prone then. Your shopping cart must be wide enough to hold two baskets crosswise. If you think you'll need more than two baskets, first store the extras temporarily, nested, on the lower level preferably in the gap beneath the handle, bottoms forward. Lay them atop the upper pair when that pair is full. I call these baskets shopping containers, because they consolidate goods in a cart the way shipping containers do in a freighter. They both reduce cargo handling by 90%. They are no harder on cashiers than hand-carried baskets. Those Ive asked have been OK with them.