Shopping Carts Safer, Easy To Use

Detroit News
Thursday, July 19, 2001

Detroit - New in your grocer’s parking lot: It’s got four wheels, a cup holder, an anti-theft device, wireless technology and plenty of leg room for junior.

Behold the shopping cart, a retail mainstay since 1937. And while the basic design hasn’t changed much, stores and manufactures are adding new accessories to make the humble buggy safer and easier to use.

There are rubber bumpers to prevent door dings in the parking lot. Handlebars have a well for a steaming cup of coffee. Larger buggies with double-decker baskets give shoppers more room for both fragile eggs and jumbo jugs of laundry soap.

Even the dreaded parking-lot task of cart collection has advanced thanks to new machines them mobilize dozens of linked carts with a flick of a switch.

Industry experts say convenience-driven families are the inspiration for building a better shopping cart. Kid-friendly features are key, they say, because a good cart can be the difference between a full basket or a sale missed when a cranky child throws a tantrum in deli section.

“ Success or even survival means meeting the needs of the heaviest spending households,” said Jon Hauptman, vice president of Willard Bishop Consulting, a Barrington, Ill.-based firm. “And those are households with children.”

At Kroger, some carts come equipped with infant carriers. Target Corp. is using a cart it calls the “Roadster,” which carries two toddlers at once.
Farmer Jack is looking at adding a cart like the bean. Manufactured by McCue Corp., it is a standard-size cart is attached to a plastic kiddie car that keeps children safe – and entertained – during a shopping trip.

Even some department stores, which traditionally shunned buggies, recently added them to their stores. Both Kohl’s and Sears, Roebuck & Co. chose carts that combine a stroller and a shopping bag in one sleek design.

“ It was an instant hit,” said Sears spokeswomen Jan Drummond. “People stay longer in the store and they shop in more departments because they’re not weighed down. They buy more.”

History credits grocer Sylvan Goldman for creating the first chopping cart.
According to lore, he noticed customers at his Oklahoma City store stopped shopping when their hand-held baskets became too heavy.

The first prototype combined a folding chair, wire hand baskets and a handle in a feat of engineering that has endured for nearly 65 years.

“ Really, the shopping cart itself hasn’t changed very much. It’s like they say – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Hauptman said. “People still complain about wobbly wheels and such, but for the most part the design really makes a lot of sense.”

Carts now come in all sizes, configurations and finishes. Plastic carts are popular at Meijer Inc., where shoppers say they are more attractive and easier to push, said spokesperson John Zimmerman.

They have an added benefit: “Plastic is a lot friendlier to cars,” Zimmerman said.
There are dozens of manufacturers who stay busy replacing carts as they wear out or are “displaced,” the industry’s term for lost or stolen carts. Replacing a cart is expensive: the average cart costs between $65 to $125.

Theft has encouraged retailers to try a bevy of preventative measures. In one pilot program, some Kroger stores in California installed underground cables in their parking lots, much like the electronic “invisible fence” used to keep household pets in line. Should someone try to walk off the property with a cart, its wheels lock up and render it immobile, said spokesman Gary Rhodes.

Other technologies have made cart collection a breeze. Meijer started using Quickart, a remote-controlled cart collector, more then a year ago, Zimmerman said. The collector requires little labor other than a deft hand on a joystick.

In fact, steering it reminds young baggers of a video-game controller, so all the employees want to play with it, Zimmerman said. It also has made recruiting people for the job easier because anyone can operate the device.

According to the manufacturer, Dane Technologies in Plymouth, Minn., the model Meijer uses cost around $5,000. Zimmerman said Meijer plans to purchase one for every store before year’s end.

Wireless technology also may change the way people use carts. New products now in the test phase do everything from collect paperless coupons, beam advertisements to a video screen or scan product bar codes for a faster check out. As for the wobbly wheel – well, they’re still working on it.

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