El Carret de Compra
The shopping cart is an endearing a fixture in Barcelona (I can't speak for the rest of Spain, we still haven't left Catalonia…). I decided against buying one when we arrived, for a simple reason: our street is reached by 75 stairs from the main shopping street below. And, pre-pandemic, I often shopped on the way home from doing other things around the city, and I didn't want to bring one with me around town. But I've continued to admire them: some are fancy, with cooler compartments for meat and fish; all have a rigid bottom and when empty can double as a seat for a tired toddler; others fold for easy transport when empty. Supermarkets typically have locking cart parking at the front of the store. Customers pack their groceries right into the carts at the checkout, reducing the need for shopping bags. These would be so useful for the car-free in Somerville and Cambridge: they would be more suited to the bumpy, narrow sidewalks than their clunky American counterparts.