Extra Push Alleviates Cart Retrieval Headaches

Store Equipment & Design
November 1997 Vol. 6 No. 11

Cart gathering is a difficult job for employees to do, and store employers to fill, especially in Plymouth, MN.

"The climate up here varies from tropical heat and rain in the summers to freezing wind and below zero temperatures in the winter," said Rich Dorfner, store manager of the local Cub foods, who had trouble getting his employees to collect carts.

But Dorfner started using the QuicKart, a battery-operated cart retrieval device from Plymouth, MN-based Dane Technologies, over a year ago, and it's helped him keep a number of employees, and save up to 40 hours a week ever since.

Matt Gard, store manager for Ultra Foods in Highland, IN, also uses the QuicKart and estimates he's saved as much as 65 hours a week during busy holiday periods at his 650-cart store.

The battery-operated machine pushes a chain of carts from behind and is controlled by a store employee using a hand-held transmitter standing in front of the carts. QuicKart's remote control features four options: a carhorn for alerting people, an emergency stop button, and two speed controls which power the cart at 2.7 mph at a "fast" setting and .77 mph at a "slow" setting.

The two-speed setting helps ease the carts into the front of the store, said David Lecky, senior vice president of Dane Technologies. An optional snow blade converts the QuicKart into a mini-snow plow, which can pick up eight to nine inches of wet snow. That's particularly useful for small areas where people walk but larger, snow-plowing trucks can't go, said Leckey.

Forty carts is the recommended number, but retailers using the cart say they like the QuicKart because it can push as many as 100 carts a time.

"It's a strong machine," said Dorfner, whose store has over 500 carts. "It makes [the job of cart collection] more attractive."

Maintenance for the QuicKart is minimal. Gard, who has been using the machine six days a week recharges the dry cell batteries nightly, and keeps the tires inflated, replacing them occasionally. Employees are shown a training video and given a written test before the can operate the machine.

The machine is available in two models: the 2 hp QuicKart 4000 ride-on model costs $6,850 and uses six 6V batteries; the 1 hp QuicKart 2000 walk-behind model costs $4,850 and uses three 12V batteries. For more information call (888) 344-7779.

- by Andrew Chang

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