The holiday shopping experience is bad enough with kids in tow, crowded aisles, and long check out lines. But getting a bad cart just adds to the frustration and misery of getting in and out of the store in one piece.

You might think that shopping carts have come about as far as they can. Well smart shopper, you can put that idea right out of your head. Fun shopping using high tech is right around the corner. Here are some shopping cart facts you probably weren’t aware of.

Whole Foods Motor Driven Shopping Cart

Whole Foods grocery chain is experimenting with a motor driven shopping cart that follows you around the store and helps you shop You create your list at home then download it into the iPad looking readout device mounted on the cart.

The cart has a scanner that will price the items, tell you what aisle your items are on, will alert you if you put the wrong brand in the cart, and will tell you when you have gotten everything on your list. It will tally your purchases and charge them to your debit or credit card. Then you can proceed to customer service where you are an employee can assist you in bagging your purchases. Pretty cool.

Shopping Cart Christmas Tree?

The shopping cart is the symbol of shopping and the Christmas Tree is one of the symbols of Christmas so why not create a Christmas Tree made out of shopping carts.

That’s exactly what artist Anthony Schmitt did for the Edgemar Mall in Santa Monica, CA. The 33-foot tree is made from 86 shopping carts complete with lights. A very metal Merry Christmas.

Shopping Cart Abuse?

There are programs for animal abuse, child abuse, and spousal abuse but until now the shopping cart had no such prevention programs. Enter the CPSCA (Center for the Prevention of Shopping Cart Abuse). They claim to be “fighting for the silver chariot of the parking lot.”

For those who feel you are a serial shopping cart abuser you might want to consider signing up for their “12 Step Program.”

Shopping Cart Injuries

Each year approximately 23,500 children aged 5 and below find themselves in the emergency room from falls from shopping carts according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Injuries range from minor cuts and abrasions to concussions and in worst cases fatalities. So make sure you buckle the little rug rats in tight.

Shopping Carts and Food Drives

These two go hand in glove together. Every year Chicago hosts the Chi-Ditarod (The Chicago Urban Iditarod) modeled after the Alaskan Dog Sled Races. Teams of 5 pull their decorative carts containing 49 pounds of food through a series of checkpoints until reaching the finish line. All race proceeds go to the local food bank.

Some Final Thoughts

Instead of shopping carts I think we need a store where my wife and I sit and the item go past us on lazy Susan type conveyor belts. I can grab the green beans and the Sham-WoW from the comfort of my chair. Grocery chains take note you heard it here first. What’s my fondest wish for you this Christmas? I hope you get a cart with four working wheels. Good Luck.

More From KMMS-KPRK 1450 AM