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More on Talking Shopping Carts
ThosLives writes "CNN.com is reporting a story about Talking Shopping Carts. (I rue the day when viruses attack these carts, telling everyone to go buy Brand X). This article also has some interesting comments about possible (and likely inevitable) uses of RFID. I wonder, in the future, will I be able to buy anything with our new funny colored cash dollars?" We've mentioned these before.
I'd really like to be able to download the information myself. Maybe they could add a MMC slot to the cart (or USB drive, smart card, etc.). I don't think it would be that hard, heck, they could probally do it now at the cash registers. Load that info into a program at home (maybe even a custom program for the chain) and there you got your shopping list. On a simular note, they could have the information tie into a website which you could create a "usual" list, plus a couple of items that were featured on the website.
As I see it the real problem with the carts is the expense to wire (and upkeep) for each cart (besides, those thing get trashed quickly).
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
With computers tracking every grocery item purchased, I thought it would be really cool if they would give you a sum total of nutritional value of your grocery purchases. Assuming that you actually eat what you purchase, this would give you an idea if you are getting the RDA of the different nutrients you need. Technology could actually help us eat a balanced diet. Imagine how cool it would be if the grocery cart told you that it looked like you were getting too many carbs and not enough protein...
Unfortunately, all of this technology is being used to make the quick short term gain of tricking people into more and more impulse buys and having the overall effect of decreasing the quality of the modern diet.
I suspect the talking cart will be a grocery store annoyance on par with screaming kids in the playland carts that are the current fad.