Why is the mere act of Logging in creates a cart?

[movieseals]

I am curious as to why the fact that a customer logs in automatically creates a cart?  Customers might login without any intention of purchasing anything.  Why does the system automatically generates a cart?

[datakick]

One reason I can think of is customer delivery/invoice address. This is important information in order to display correct price (when you have specific prices for different countries, or cart rules that applies to address,...).

So, when customer logs in, system creates cart (if no cart exists yet) and assign delivery/invoice address. Customer can now see different prices than regular visitor.

[movieseals]

That makes sense, but could it not be less cumbersome if we assigned different prices by groups?  Depending on what group a customer belongs to, he sees what he needs to see price wise.  Should he choose to buy something, since he is logged in, his option of invoice address and delivery address should be activated nevertheless should he create a cart, no?  Cart rules requires having something in the cart to begin with, so the rule would apply when he or she logs in.

Just getting tired of cleaning up empty carts of customers who log in to post reviews, consult past orders or looking at shipment updates.

Edited April 27, 2019 by movieseals

[Traumflug]

A known issue: https://github.com/thirtybees/thirtybees/issues/776