This is America.
Demand a tip!! 
A big smile and a thank you is priceless to me .
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I think this woman (who I was newly dating) was trying to learn more about me and figure out if we shared the same principals/standards.
I guess this small act helped her determine if I was a genuinely nice guy or another guy telling her what she wanted to hear.
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I find this an interesting and important response to “shopping cart theory”:
(ETA: Keith Sobus is a Christian evangelist, but apart from his thoughts on sex work here, I still appreciate a reflection on how we determine moral goodness)
The Fresh Market near me had those exact carts and baskets when it opened. I loved them. They got rid of them. 
This video should be played on the tv sets inside the store!
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I wish our supermarkets here would have those half-sized carts. So far, I’ve only seen them at Grocery Outlet.
New peeve: Three-day and four-day sales (i.e., Thu-Sat and Wed-Sat). My schedule is basically constrained to one trip a week, usually Tuesday. So it doesn’t matter what a great sale it is, it just pisses me off, as if they decided to have a sale only if your affinity number is even. (Actually, that brings back memories of gas “rationing”, which wasn’t rationing at all. But I digress.)
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What’s an affinity number?
(Slightly afraid to ask )
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The number on your affinity card (a.k.a. club card).
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AIEEEEEEE. Got my car filled once, bought a locking gas cap, parked it in the apartment garage, went out 1x week to run the engine so the battery wouldn’t die, and took the bus (before dawn!) back and forth to law school. Luckily the walk to and from the bus stop wasn’t too awful (and it was at the beginning of the route, so I could always get a seat. And a bagel with cream cheese when I got off. Grocery store was near my apt, too. I wasn’t about to fight with the crazies in line. And when we had the second shortage, a few years later, I could walk to work, though it was a bit of a journey. But I was young and foolish. And once again, thank God for neighborhood groceries.
You are correct, it wasn’t exactly rationing.
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My high school weekend chore was filling up the two family cars, even numbered plate on one day, the odd on another. I’d get in ‘line’ at 5:30am, the station opened at 6am. I was usually about 22nd or so in line. No worries as to supply at that time of the day. I’d d blow half a tank on Saturday night driving around with friends. We didn’t drive the cars much during the week. Interesting time to experience.
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One of the stores at a local chain Cub foods mostly in MN didn’t have any baskets out so I asked at the service counter. The lady told me they had stopped replacing baskets because people were filling them up with cosmetics and then make a run for it, she was very apologetic
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When I insist on putting my items on the conveyor belt to scan or insist on bagging my groceries, boy do I get the evil eye! I’m not trying to take any employee’s job away from them. I just want to ENSURE that my purchase goes home correct, intact and MY way.
So there!
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How would the cashier be able to even reach your items on the other side of the conveyor belt? 
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The only store I frequent that has cards is Safeway but they’ve eliminated the hard cards. Your phone number is your card number. I really dislike the digital coupons because it makes me the employee.
But the deli girl when I was getting $5.00 Monday chicken told me a secret: tell the cashier you don’t have a cell phone and they will ring it up manually.
Sneaky but effective.
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Until your pocket rings?
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most folks i know leave the ringer off.
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My iPhone is still linked to Japan so I can access Japanese apps because if I switch my address to a US one, I’ll lose access to some of them and my prepaid Apple card. Because of that, I can’t download many US apps like supermarkets and fast food places. Hence I have no access to supermarket’s digital coupons. At the local Kroger version in Las Vegas, “Smith’s”, I can load the digital coupon items in my online cart and at checkout receive the proper discounts. But at the only other nationwide supermarket chain, Albertsons/Vons, you MUST use their app to get the digital coupon price.
One time I told the cashier I had forgotten my phone and she kindly gave me the digital coupon price, but the next time I tried that, I was told she’d get in trouble for doing that and was refused.
I’ll switch my phone to a US address at the beginning of next year and by then I shouldn’t have this problem…but by then the merger of Kroger and Albertsons may already be approved (though I don’t want that to happen…)
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Didn’t even think of that use for the baskets.
