In brief We are receiving heartwarming reports that an Austrian supermarket has withdrawn talking shopping trolleys because, to put it bluntly, they pissed punters right off.

The Billa noshatorium in Purkersdorf apparently thought it was a bright idea to have jibbering mobile baskets which pointed out bargains to delighted shoppers. The supermarket also deployed robotic cleaners which roamed the aisles politely requesting loitering buyers to shift their arses. Neither went down well with the Austrian purchasing public, and have been removed as a result.

This outstanding victory for humanity in the War Against the Machines™ comes hot-ish on the heels of the announcement that UK chain Tesco will roll out multimedia trolleys to entertain obstreperous Brit tots. We await the outcome of that particular experiment with interest. ®

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