Italian supermarket has special carts designed for dogs so they can go shopping with their humans

Looking after dogs holds about the same responsibilities as taking care of children do, but dogs and kids do not enjoy the same privileges. For instance, kids are allowed in supermarkets and you can place them in your cart as you walk around the different aisles. It's safer to say that dogs clearly do not have that option. Most often than not, they are left outside the store unsupervised as their owners go about their shopping in a hurried manner. Therefore, one supermarket in Italy is making a special provision for taking our four-legged friends along with us while we go grocery shopping.  

The supermarket decided to make specially designed shopping carts available for their shoppers. These carts were made specifically keeping dogs in mind and are a huge hit. Gianfranco Galantini, owner of the store Unes in the city of Liano said the idea came to him when he saw many dogs who were forced to wait outside the shop for their humans to return. He also figured that it would be stressful for the customers who would feel the need to hurry with their shopping to return to their dog. He decided to ease the minds of the pets and dog parents alike when he went ahead with the new shopping cart, reported The Dodo.

The new dog-friendly carts have a separate partition for patron's smaller dogs and their shopping. It has a solid bottom that makes it sturdy for the dogs to either sit or stand. The carts are also cleaned after each trip, thus making for a more hygienic experience. "So the owners of small dogs can avoid leaving them out and take all the time necessary to make their purchases with the maximum tranquility," Galantini explained to La Repubblica, an Italian media outlet. "The initiative has recently started, but we have already noticed how much customers appreciate it."

Concerns of dogs misbehaving have necessitated that only those small dogs that can be controlled by their owners are allowed into departmental stores as a rule in Italy. This further helps the dog cart initiative. Nothing untoward has occurred yet and even though the dogs seem to bark a little when placed in the cart at first, they seem to calm down soon enough and enjoy the ride. In fact, these shopping carts became such a hit that the management is in talks with Galantini and deciding to introduce them in the other branches of their store as well.

This would have come as great news to those pet parents in Italy who would have dreaded grocery shopping without their pooches. One can only hope other departmental stores around the world can take inspiration from Galantini's initiative. In America, state and local laws generally prohibit animals in grocery stores due to health and safety concerns. However, an exception is made for service dogs but there is still confusion about what qualifies as a service animal, according to Chron. All small business owners are required to allow service dogs in their facilities. But the same does not hold not true for patrons who have emotional support animals.

To overcome this obstacle, a New York-based company came up with a high-tech solution. While small towns took to tying their dogs outside stores, the same option is not available to those in big cities like New York where they can just be taken away. That's where Dog Parker comes to the rescue. They are tiny dog-sized houses located on the sidewalks of New York where pet owners can leave their dogs while they pop into the store to run errands, according to Tech Crunch. Till the time we can go grocery shopping with our dogs, this will have to do.