What’s the left-hand circular loop on a Winn-Dixie grocery cart for?
Disclaimer: my native regional vocabulary is showing (“shopping cart” also works, although I specified “grocery cart” to specify a store cart rather than a personal cart. Others might know this vehicle as a buggy, dolly, or carriage.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20230606233454if_/https://i.redd.it/1uu9hiz2xdty.jpg
(Image_description: a photo of the collapsible front compartment of a Winn-Dixie grocery cart, containing a plastic bag of red, orange, and yellow bell peppers; a sack of potatoes is visible in the main basket. The front compartment is backed by a placard; the left half bears an advertisement for a local plumbing company; the right is a guide to products by numbered store aisle, topped with a picture of a happy dog wearing sunglasses in a hammock, captioned, “THIS COULD BE YOUR AD!” and the contact phone number. This front compartment has leg holes and a seatbelt, implying tacit permission to seat small children (and/or well-behaved animals?) there.)
Image source: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/675ebq/this_shopping_cart_has_cup_holders/
My brother and I have been wondering this for some while. The circular loop on the right has a self-evident function: it’s a drink holder, the right size to accommodate most cans, cups, and water bottles, with bars at the bottom to support the container and braces to steady it from wobbling over. The left loop is… just an open circular loop; most bottles, cans, and cups would drop right through. I’ve taken to hanging my cane (with a grip perpendicular to the shaft) there, but a lot of canes would either not fit (Hurry Canes and others with broad support bases, or the sort of canes ornately carven with animal or mythological figures) or slide right through (gentlemen’s walking sticks; rustic wizard staff and shillelagh-style walking sticks.) The loop certainly isn’t cellphone-shaped, either flip or smart. So what’s the deal?
(My paternal grandfather’s stock answer was, “To make little girls like you ask questions.” But he’s been dead for thirty years and I’m hardly a little girl any more.)
Collateral question: there’s probably a technical term for the collapsible front compartment of a grocery cart; would anyone happen to know it?
ETA 23 July 2025: it’s to hold flowers—customarily sold in either bunched bouquets or flowerpots, both inverted conical shapes that would stay put without bottom support. Source: Florida Today, 26 July 2017, on the grand reopening of the Winn-Dixie in Cocoa Beach following Hurricane Matthew:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250416061804/https://www.floridatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/2017/07/26/photos-winn-dixie-opens-in-cocoa-beach/104011916/
https://archive.ph/WFql4
