Thursday, October 11, 2007

Shopping carts to tell when you've gone over your calorie limit

WTF! It's not bad enough that we get this shit from strangers in the grocery store, our families, our doctors, advertisements, commercials, etc, now our shopping carts are going to tell us we don't need that much junk food? According to a poll, 1/3 of shoppers want this. Did anyone ask you? No one asked me.
The carts will be fitted with a computer screen and barcode scanner and will be able to give you all of the nutrition information on the package. DUH! I can read, people, I know where the label is located, I can read it myself. I can also do math, so if I was interested in calorie counts, I could keep track of that myself. If I'm not interested in keeping track of how many calories I have purchased and how many of them came from junk food, I sure as hell don't want my shopping cart nagging me.
Just another way to dumb-down people and tell them they don't know what is best for themselves.
Not to mention that I don't want my purchases tracked. It's no one's business what I buy, when I buy it, or how much of it I bought (and you know if it's done by computer, it's just a matter of time before that happens). Sorry I'm so cynical, but experience has done that to me.

6 comments:

  1. Just when I thought I've already heard some of the dumbest ideas....

    Of course, it would only consider a package of cookies as junk-- I doubt the cart would be smart enough to figure out what flour, butter, sugar, etc are going to become!

    As if its not bad enough already for me to be forced into submitting all my purchases into BigBrother if I want store discounts (those dumb cards that track all your purchases?!? Wanna bet someday they'll tie into it too?!? Perhaps as a tool to report back to the insurance company as to whether I'm behaving or not?!?)

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  2. I'm a very short person (as well as a fat one). I'm just 5 feet tall.

    When I first started grocery shopping for myself, the carts came up to my midsection. I could reach their bottoms easily by putting a hand in.

    Recently, I've noticed that ALL the carts, at all the stores, come up past my bust, and I have to sort of lean my entire upper body into the cart and dangle my feet off the ground to get things on the bottoms. I'm not kidding.

    So what's the message here? Fill your giant, supersized cart as full as possible, but only with things we approve of? Why don't you just go back to a normal-sized cart, since The Fat Police seem to think we all eat "too much" because plates are too big and too full? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

    Oh, but it wouldn't allow you to track my purchases as well, would it. I see. No, that's all right, I don't need help - I'll just dangle over the edge of GigantoCart to get my flour, butter, and eggs, and go home to make souffles.

    Chocolate souffles.

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  3. My first reaction to this story was "what now??" But after reading it, it sounds like the cart will be fitted with a barcode so that you can scan it only if you want to know what the product contains. Though I don't know why you couldn't just read the label...

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  4. missicat, my thought exactly. And like I would be willing to scan anything I bought. Nobody's business and I sure don't want my purchases tracked, for the same reason. It's bad enough that they scan them at checkout (and can track what I purchase since we don't carry cash and pay with check or debit card). Damn, technology will get you coming and going.

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  5. Gee, I wonder how many times I'd have to swipe scotch and mallomars before the readout exploded. Let's find out, shall we...?

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  6. roflmfao, Kell, sounds like a plan to me!

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