Also, is a lot of the Internet just, unclear on the thing where you learn how to do stuff by doing it? You know what you get if you don't let toddlers into the grocery store? School age kids who don't know how to behave in the grocery store, which is worse. Don't let them in either? Teenagers who don't know how to behave in the grocery store, which is much worse. Just ban all minors from the grocery store? Now you have adults who don't know how to behave in the grocery store, and at that point we may as well not bother with society.
Toddler in the grocery store is learning:
How to find items in space that was organized by someone else
How to share narrow or complex walking spaces with strangers
How to operate in a space full of things they can touch and maybe even pick up, but don't own
How to peacefully coexist with strangers in a public space when everyone is doing their own (similar but separate) tasks in the same place
How to tolerate having nothing in particular to do in a high stimulus environment
How to greet a cashier and complete your transaction nicely
How to pay for things in a store
Most of this they are learning just by following and watching their adult(s). They're also, and this is especially important for families who don't take much public transit, getting to see a broader cross section of people than most other age appropriate activities will readily show them. The only other public place of this sort that a toddler might routinely go is the library, which is different in ways that are potentially instructive if you have only existed for 30 months.
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