As I wheeled around my local supermarket doing some shopping tonight (because hey, it's fun right?) I couldn't help but make the observation....why the hell are shopping trolleys so bloody big these days?
I can remember a time when average folk would pile up the groceries but somehow manage to do so using a contraption that didn't resemble a small Hummer.
As I rounded another corner, trying hard not to swipe an elderly couple looking for packs of pasta, I started to wonder.....Is the humble shopping trolley (now complete with airbags, cruise control, side impact protection and separate compartments...or at least it would seem) a metaphor for our obsession with consumption. Do we really *need* all the stuff we buy? What psychological ailment is the big trolley placating? Is it all a dirty conspiracy? Or a practical necessity born from research by the marketing dudes upstairs?
Whatever the case, I have to admit, for a Friday night, it was starting to get quite philosophical....why the heck had my trolley been supersized?
As I rounded another corner, I realised I was experiencing a mild yet growing sense of anxiety. As the shopping piled up ("organic butter or regular?...") I began to calculate the cost of my increasing supersized pile. Yes, I was out to buy a fair amount (weekend BBQ.....I hope the weather holds) but boy was I dreading the checkout experience (despite best intentions, does anyone else's trolley ever equate to a small nation's GDP ??). Have you ever noticed how (post check-out) everyone glances down at their receipts with a resigned *sigh* muttering "there goes another $200" (as they trudge out with 3 bags of groceries).
Coles are obviously onto this with their trolleys & their latest campaign ($10 meals + gift card promotion...note to coles: I have picked up the gift card promo brochure twice but haven't made it to the online sign up yet...). For a nation whose birth rate is either stalling (or in decline); where more people are beginning to live on their own; where we shop more frequently but buy less (average basket vs trolley shop I believe is $27...another obscure fact randomly filed in my brain) we have a bizarre obsession with the supersized tanker trolley. Supermarkets want us to browse more, stay longer, buy extra (but you can't fit all that extra choice in your little 'ol red basket).
Hmmm....perhaps I've just found the answer to my curious question??
