Living in the city, you quickly realize the harsh tradeoffs involved with volume purchases. If you buy too much, carrying it home will put a serious hurting on you. You learn to adapt by bringing along bags, rolling carts, and other carrying tools. But sometimes you aren’t properly equipped for what you want to buy, and you have to decide what to leave behind on the store shelves. This scenario is bad for the retailer, but I think they can do something about it.

Here’s the idea: customers who shop at the store frequently (as evidenced by a loyalty card or just a few recent receipts) would be entitled to borrow a wheeling cart to get their purchases home. (This would be a small folding model, not an actual shopping cart.) To reduce losses on the hardware, it would be vividly branded with the store name, and perhaps they would charge a small deposit to your credit card. The next time you shop there, just bring the cart back or use it again for bringing home the next batch of items.

Sure, some of the carts would disappear over time. But the incremental sales and margins from a larger average ticket size, plus the added loyalty fostered by this huge convenience, should make the program well worth the investment.