Yesterday evening I rode 3.3 km to and from the Beer Store after work. Notable mostly for the fact that I passed a guy loading his car up with empties to return on the way out of my neighbourhood, and then passed him again as he was entering - and I was leaving - the store.
The wire mesh basket on my rear rack worked perfectly for my own empties, and the up-high weight of 12 full bottles didn't throw me off balance too much on the return trip either. I'm used to using panniers on my touring bike, with the weight lower, but can't put panniers on this city bike since mounting the basket. I am finding that it works pretty well as-is, though. Eventually I might switch to a style of rack that allows for mounting a basket on top as well as paniers lower on each side thanks to an additional rail:
Really enjoying how cycling is expanding my sense of what qualifies as "nearby" in the neighbourhood. This beer store is north of where I live, whereas typically I would walk or take the subway to one of the locations east or west along a more major street.