stories:
Nagging Question
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Why Are Shopping Carts So Hard to Steer?It’s not you, it’s the wheels |
Most U.S. shopping carts are equipped with front caster wheels, not unlike those on a desk chair, which can swivel in any direction. Sometimes all four of the wheels are swiveling casters, which makes the cart almost too maneuverable and hard to push around corners. More often, a cart’s back wheels are fixed to roll straight. But because carts see such high traffic, are pushed over hazardous floors, and are frequently the victims of aisle rage, it’s easy for the metal base of the cart to get bent. When that happens to a fixed-rear-wheel vehicle, the driver’s own force has to make up for the cart’s wayward path (which in turn creates more aisle rage, and so on). Proper weight distribution will help you steer: Load the heaviest items in the back, above the rear-wheel axis.
Photoillustration by Davies & Starr/Getty Images
"and are frequently the victims of aisle rage..."
Better a cart being the victim of aisle rage than the cart operator when s/he gets between me and a shelf of Kozy Shack pudding.
I find the mini-carts, at Whole Foods, super easy to navigate, and they do not cause aisle jam. Two tiers gives me enough room for most of my shopping. Different wheels? Not sure.
Do other markets have them?
Has there ever been a study determining the business impact of poor-steering carts? I know my wife has vowed never to shop at a local market again after repeatedly getting stuck with broken wheels.
the problem I have is that the aisles are too small for the ( rusty wheeled) carts here in Belize. I am a "park in one central spot, forage/return" type for this reason.
I like those mini-carts too. They now have them at my recently re-gentrified Kroger in Nashville. Even though they have them there at the front door, people look at you like you're nuts, like you're pushing around a Hello Kitty cart or something.
Let's stop and say thanks to the inventor of the shopping cart, Sylvan Goldman. My parents and my grandfather worked for him, at Standard/Humpty Dumpty stores in Oklahoma City.
The following link gives you more history and makes current day comparisons on retailers who do - and do not - have shopping carts in their stores:
http://realcartu.com/goldman/
i came into this discussion late, but, my cart focus is in another direction- RIDEABILITY.
I test before accepting, immediately eliminating any with a left or right bias,drag, or wheel wobble. Store floor composition is also a factor but i am where i am. Height and handle position are important, because without the proper "lean-over" the ride is ruined or impossible. The back should be loaded first, so soda 12 packs are a first stop. From that point it's a go. Off hours, with a clear aisle, i can push off a few steps,
lean over, and coast the whole length.
Otherwise is a mild "scootering" cruise from stop to stop.
Don't comment on "safety", i am aware, watch for kids,etc, can stop instantly, steer well, and have never had an incident. I can even turn corners while aboard.
I am male (of course), and well over 40. But as the stereotype goes, many of us just never grow up. Product selection is still taken seriously.
I have never had a negative comment, but the opposite, smiles from adults, and looks of disbelief from kids who wish they were big enough, (and allowed).
narc714
Eliminate the comment area in future editions.
"Hello Kitty Carts1" I love it. That's what I'll call them from now on. I like the carts, too.
I enjoy the articles and the reader comments! Keep up the good work.
Enjoyed the article, and I like the "Hello Kitty" carts at Central Market.
Those mini carts are showing up everywhere. I love them and use one every time I can find one that is not in use. I even put a sleeping three year old in the top and shopped for a week on the bottom.
We have carts here in Florida that automatically freeze up if you try to take them past the parking lot; I kid you not!
This is a bit off topic, but I like the French system where you stick a coin into the cart's lock to release it from the string, and get it back when you return it to the store's corral. As customers we all pay for someone to keep bringing carts back to the store, and could as a group use the extra exercise......eh.
I hate the coin carts, and the system tends not to work - people just pass the carts to the next shopper. Apparently it's not worth walking back to the store cart queue to retrieve a quarter.
Are "mini carts" the ones just like regular carts except smaller? 'Cause
the ones I like are the ones that the Japanese market in the city has:
a little wheeled frame with hooks that can hold two handbaskets. And
four steerable wheels. They're tiny, maneuverable, and totally great.
Wouldn't be good for loading up groceries for a family of eight at
costco, but in an urban setting, they're perfect.
French carts - Moi aussi. THought it was a very intelligent design, even when I had to spend five minutes in the parking lot at Carrefour trying to figure it out and find the right change.
Hello Kitty - Perfect nickname! So funny!
Rideability - Me, too. I never checked people's reaxn, though, 'cause I'm going too fast. >:-)
Mini carts - no, they're not like regular carts at all. They are little boxes with wheels, much less metal, not purse/kid section. They do steer nicely. Unfortunately, they still irritate me because the handle is so short I keep crashing my shins into the bottom. They might work better for someone of a different height? I think WF briefly had the ones with frames/legs/wheels for the baskets like you're mentioning (slick!) and then switched to ones that are all one unit.
My personal beef is those foul, germ-ridden instruments of torture - the kiddy car carts. ARRRRGH! If WF ever adopts them I will have a complete breakdown. They cannot steer worth a crap - for exactly the reasons cited in the article, but more so. I have crashed into displays and other carts repeatedly - you just can't help it. And they don't stop especially well, either - I think they outweigh me, and I am no waif.
I persuaded my son that if he rides in the kiddy cart, it's much less interesting for him. No view, no treats, no silliness with Mommy. Of course with that kind of deal, you gotta deliver, so it'll alllll about the carrot juice and bunny crackers when we shop. No hardship for anyone. :)
It depends on the store- if it's a major chain I won'tput up with a recalcitrant or wobbly or noisy cart, but I shop at "alternative" groceries a lot, and shoot, I'm just grateful to get a cart to haul my cases of canned oolong and green tea to the register, it can shimmy and bang as much as it wants, but I try to eliminate those without looking like a picky asshole when I'm at the local Asian oddball market.
In other words, when in Rome...
Re: Zarf"s September 3, 2006 comment: I don't want to have to put money in a kiosk to get a cart and then have it refunded to me when I return the cart. I like the idea of paying some high school kid minimum wage to gather up the carts in the parking lot and take them back into the grocery store. The money spent on the kid (indirectly, through infinitesimally higher prices) is well worth not having to push the empty cart back into the store and then walk back to my car.
As for the French, I greatly admire their genius for creating great cuisine and their respect for quality food, but they have a different system than we do. They live in small houses, drive small cars, and shop for food almost everyday at their nearby small grocery stores. Whether they want to buy large quantities of food at one time and save trips, or not, they can't, due to their small houses, cars, etc.
We Americans live far from our (large) grocery stores, don't travel to the grocery daily (weekly is more like it), and buy larger quantities of food, which we store in our larger houses, with larger refrigerators and freezers. So, when I get done with my "big production" weekly grocery shopping, I want to steer my big cart to a cart corral and go home, not truck the cart back a block to the grocery store to recovery my 25 cent deposit. If some grocery chain starts using the French system, it will be a deal breaker for me. I'll shop elsewhere. Thanks!
This is a great discussion. I absolutely abhor those germ-ridden, poorly manufactured grocery store carts. The good news is however, that my mother, even in her old age, was the one who enlightened me with a solution. She says to me, "Why don't you just buy your own cart?" Of course I shrugged it off at first, thinking, "Sure......I'll just buy my own hunk of junk and watch its inevitable demise in six months or less - not to mention the shear size of hauling one of those carts around. I think not, mother dear."
Well, as the unbreakable pattern continues, I was wrong and mother was right. She found out about these delightful little shopping carts that fold. They are compact, lightweight and can collapse to fit in your trunk or backseat. I believe the correct term for them is "folding shopping cart."
Anyways, just thought I would share this little slice of knowledge with you all. There are a number of online stores that carry them. I found an online coupon for this site (they have a pretty good selection of personal carts to choose from):
http://www.cartsonthego.com
- Cheers