About 20 years ago, Minnesota was introduced to the warehouse-style grocery store concept. Besides their wide aisles stocked to the ceiling, these super-stores gave shoppers extra big carts and lots of them.
But Minnesota winters are tough, and collecting all those shopping carts in the parking lot after a blizzard was challenging and potentially hazardous. Picture one or two poor high school students maneuvering 10-15 carts into one long line, then pushing them up an incline back to the store in slushy ice and snow. It was the worst job in the supermarket…and it had to be done 24/7 for some of the stores!