Shopping cart mounted portable data collection device with tethered dataform reader

A retail consumer product information display system comprises a portable terminal (10) accessible to a retail consumer at a retail outlet and at least one remotely located base unit (58). The remotely located base unit (58) includes a database of product information and means for retrieving the product information from the database in response to a request. The terminal (10) includes: a transceiver adapted for transmitting the request to the base unit (58) and receiving the product information from the base unit (58); a visual display (14) for displaying the product information to the retail consumer; an imager (22) having a two-dimensional photo-sensor array (170); means for storing a digital representation of an image sensed by the photo-sensor array (170); and means for generating the request from the digital representation.