Supermarket shoppers may soon be cruising the aisles with "intelligent" shopping carts that warn them if they're buying too much junk food, technology experts say. While many would be happy enough if they could simply get their trolley to go in a straight line, the high-tech model will be fitted with a computer screen and barcode scanner.
It will read each product's individual code to give customers information about calories, nutrition, ethical sourcing and the environment.
"Shoppers want barcode readers on their trolleys (shopping carts) to calculate the nutritional content and tell them when they have blown their calorific budget," said EDS's Sion Roberts, director of consumer industries and retail.
Individuals should delight in receiving government-approved, collective nutrition and caloric advice from their shopping cart! So how do these carts calculate "caloric budgets" when a) we buy food well ahead of time for stocking purposes, and b) I know this is a toughie, but we are all individuals with different taste, needs, body types, activity levels, etc. Would the government's Caloric counter and nutritional-guru-in-a-basket go haywire when I have too much pasta in my basket for carb-loading? Or will it have an attached weight scale, recognize that I'm a mere 113 lbs, and "allow" me my purchase? Would I then receive a special "stamp" of health approval based on the government's BMI? What about fat folks? Will they be tarred and feathered with partially-hydrogenated something-or-other?
Plus.......ethical sourcing and the environment? Ahh, so these contraptions also offer up partisan political commentary, as well. A lovely thought: having special interest groups invade your private shopping experience! Imagine how the government could use these things to reinforce their politically-motivated and corporatocracy-influenced lifestyle code?
