Smart Cart

This is a programmed self-powered shopping cart that follows you around the store.

When you enter the store, you pick up a proximity badge (handed to you by the Wal-Mart greeter, perhaps). The badge is linked to a specific cart. Click a little button on the badge and a cart comes lumbering out of the in-store cart corral and meanders up to you, stopping 2 or 3' away. Clip the badge to your coat, and as you move through the store, the cart follows behind you like a well trained dog. Deposit your goods into it. The cart is equipped with a sensory device for detecting other carts or shoppers, to prevent collisions and to allow it to get out of the way if it happens to be blocking the path of another cart while stationary.

Finish shopping, walk to the checkouts and the cart automatically queues itself. You'll still need to remove the contents onto the counter, however. Once empty, the cart wanders to the other end of the checkout so that the checker can place the bagged goods into it. Pay for your things and then walk out to your car, the filled cart lumbering behind, using its sensors to avoid collisions in the parking lot. At your vehicle, unload the goods, place the badge into the cart (plug it in to a recharging built-in receptacle), which triggers the cart to return to the in-store corral on its own, where it backs into a line of other carts, all connected to an inline recharger, until it is needed again.

The perimeter of the store parking lot could be equipped with underground 'invisible dog fencing' to prevent theft of the cart and badge (either of which would howl out a screeching alarm and also transmit an alert to store authorities).

The cart's design could vary from traditional shopping cart appearance, since it would not be designed for human push power. However it would still have a regular push handle attached in the event of a malfunction or power-down during shopping.

Of course there would be plenty of space for advertising on the cart. I'm not certain about a toddler seat however, it could be done of course but I think some market research would need to first discover what the public opinion would be to leaving kids in a self-powered cart.

Future revisions could include a built-in bar code scanner that maintains and displays a running total of your grocery bill. A scale in the chassis would detect the weight difference and calculate the price when you buy a sold-by-weight item. At the checkout, you don't need to remove anything from the cart... just pay the running total amount the cart displays and you can go.

Another future revision.. an onboard help system tied into the store computers. Can't find an item? Ask the cart, and it will lead you right to it. You buy a can of beans, and do not notice there is a competitor's brand on sale... the cart could notify you.

A certain amount of the additional expense of these carts could be recouped by allowing the carts to play audio advertisements, perhaps transmitted to them from inside the store, a 30-second spot every two minutes or so. I'm not a fan of this development, but it might make the carts more favorable in grocers' eyes.