Today on Monday Mysteries we have a mystery that I can even offer to solve. Or at least, I have a theory that seems extremely reasonable as the solution to the issue at hand.

When I spied the following shopping carts a few weeks ago in a local store, I wondered why there were little mirrors attached to each cart. Some sort of rear-view mirror to use in case someone is trying to sneak up on you?

Shopping Carts, DM Store, Tübingen

On second glance, though, I realized that those things were not mirrors, but rather magnifying lenses. It then dawned on me that a glass like that could be handy in the type of store I was. You see, it was a store called DM, which is a chain that is in many ways similar to CVS or Rite Aid or Longs Drug in Canada. In other words, it’s a type of what we called “drugstores” in North America. The crucial difference, though, is that here in Germany this type of store doesn’t carry “drugs”; the same was true of the same kind of stores in Italy, too.  DM sells things you’d find in an American drug store: e.g., band-aids, paper goods, cleaning supplies, make up, shampoo, etc. etc.  It contains lots of products that have lots of fine print on lots of packages. A magnifying glass is definitely something that could be useful on occasion to figure out what you want to buy for any given product type. What a clever idea on the stores part, at least in IMHO.

Of course, I don’t really know what the thinking is behind those carts, since I didn’t ask anyone in the store. But I think my idea at least plausible to explain why there is a “looking” glass — and not a “looking glass” — on those carts in DM.

“Looking” Glasses, Tübingen