This Is Not Target's New Shopping Cart: Here's Why It Should Be

Enough with the robots, and the magic mirrors and the virtual reality headsets, already. Now in the thick of this nail-biting holiday season when stores generate a massive chunk of their annual sales, it's become all too clear that retailers have fallen prey to bright-shiny-object syndrome when it comes to digital innovations. Instead, they should be tapping technology to fix shoppers' longtime pain points, like that dreaded wait in line, and the archaic fitting-room experience, or the agony of roaming through aisles like a lost puppy trying to find the whole-wheat cous cous. Putting an end to these iconic shopping-torture rituals would go a long way in boosting good will with consumers while also fattening stores' bottom lines. Shelling out money on those, perhaps scary to some, talking robots to "help" consumers in the aisle?