It's silly, but it works. If you take a basket or a shopping cart into a store, you're more likely to make a larger purchase. When you don't have any aids to help you carry things, you limit the amount you can carry with you to the cash register.
Retailers know this. They're making carts bigger and offering you shopping baskets if they see you're empty handed.
It isn't always possible, but we should avoid baskets and carts if we don't need them. If you're going in for one or two items, not picking up a basket will curve temptations to make additional buys. The same is true if you have several items. Take a basket instead of a cart and watch your final bill go down.
