Tesco to deploy kiddie-calming shopping trolley

Fighting supermarket ennui with educational DVDs

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 4th August 2004 11:07 GMT

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UK supermarket chain Tesco is considering rolling out a hi-tech shopping trolley which will help prevent obstreperous tots from throwing shopping-related tantrums.

The Wanzl "Tantrum Tamer" will be kitted out with a screen through which harrassed parents can feed their offspring a range of educational DVDs and CDs. Tesco says that almost half of 3,000 parents quizzed confirmed that their little ones had suffered "boredom tantrums" as a result of being forced to trundle up and down between the aisles.

Tesco spokesman Jonathon Church explained: "Children can get very bored very quickly during supermarket shopping trips. And this can be a real problem for parents, especially during the summer holidays. But the supermarket can actually be a great place for children to learn all sorts of new things."

The educational opportunities mooted include "playing I Spy, recognising colours and learning the origins of different foods". Good stuff, and we look forward to seeing how Tesco will explain to a bawling three-year-old where lamb chops come from.

The "Tantrum Trainer" does not, sadly, appear to address the very real problem of adult "trolley rage" whereby grown men will be reduced to apoplectic anger by old people creating chaotic trolleyjams around the tinned sardine section. Might we suggest that adding a beer cooler to the proposed new machine will probably do the trick. ®