Everything about Shopping Cart totally explained
A
shopping cart (also called a
trolley in
British and
Australian English; sometimes referred to as a
carriage or
shopping carriage in the
New England region of the
U.S.; also known as a
bascart in some regions of the U.S.,
basket in others, and
buggy in the
American South and parts of
British Columbia) is a
cart supplied by a
shop, especially a
supermarket, for use by customers inside the shop for transport of merchandise to the
check-out counter during
shopping, and often to the customer's car after paying as well. Often, customers are allowed to leave the carts in the parking lot, and store personnel return the carts to the shop.
Design
Almost all shopping carts are made of metal or plastic and designed to nest within each other in a line to facilitate moving many at one time, and to save on storage space. The carts can come in many sizes, with larger ones able to carry a child. There are also specialized carts designed for two children, and electric
mobility scooters with baskets designed for disabled customers. 24,000 children are injured each year in shopping carts according to the
American Academy of Pediatrics
. Some stores have child carts that look like a car or van with a seat where a child can sit. Such "Car-Carts" or "Beans", as some call them in the cart business, may offer protection and convenience by keeping the child restrained, lower to the ground, protected from falling items, and amused.
Shopping carts are usually fitted with four
caster wheels which can point in any direction to allow "easy" maneuvering. However, when any one wheels jam, the cart can become difficult to handle. Many carts only have swivel caster wheels on the front, while the rear ones are on a fixed axle. This presumably improves the stability and steering life of the cart, at the expense of maneuverability.
An alternative to the shopping cart is a small handheld
shopping basket. A customer can often choose between a cart and a basket, and may prefer a basket for a small amount of merchandise. Small shops, where carts would be impractical, often supply only baskets. A third options is a
collapsible utility cart. The basket of the collapsible utility cart is pivotally mounted to a forward facing, C-shaped cart frame. As the lower portion of the C-shaped cart frame is moved under a truck bed, the upper part containing the basket slides onto the truck bed. The frame is then pivoted upward around the truck bumper and about the basket and conveniently stored around the basket. details this invention.
Often there's the problem of
theft of shopping carts by
pedestrian customers who use them to carry items home. See "Theft Prevention" below.
History
The first shopping cart was introduced on
June 4,
1937, the invention of
Sylvan Goldman, owner of the
Piggly-Wiggly supermarket chain in
Oklahoma City. With the assistance of Fred Young, a mechanic, Goldman constructed the first shopping cart, basing his design on that of a wooden folding chair. They built it with a metal frame and added wheels and wire baskets. Another mechanic, Arthur Kosted, developed a method to mass produce the carts by inventing an assembly line capable of forming and welding the wire. The cart was awarded patent number 2,196,914 on April 9, 1940 (Filing date: March 14, 1938), titled, "Folding Basket Carriage for Self-Service Stores". They advertised the invention as part of a new “No Basket Carrying Plan.”
The invention didn't catch on immediately. Men found them effeminate; women found them suggestive of a baby carriage. "I've pushed my last baby buggy," an offended woman informed him. After hiring several male and female models to push his new invention around his store and demonstrate their utility, as well as greeters to explain their use, shopping carts became extremely popular and Goldman became a multimillionaire. Goldman continued to make modifications to his original design, and the basket size of the shopping cart increased as stores realized that their customers purchased more as its size increased. Today, most
big-box stores and supermarkets have shopping carts for the convenience of the shoppers.
Rental
In many countries, the customer has to pay a small
deposit by inserting a
coin, which is returned if and when the customer returns the cart to a designated cart parking point. The deposit varies, but usually coins of higher value, such as
€ 1 or
£ 1 are used. While the deposit systems usually are designed to accommodate a certain size of domestic coin, foreign coins, former currencies (like
DM coins) or even appropriately folded pieces of cardboard can be used to unlock the trolleys as well.
Some retailers sell "trolley tokens" as an alternative to coins, often for charity. The motivation behind the deposit systems isn't theft deterrent since the trolley is worth significantly more than the deposit, however through this fee the retailer seeks to reduce the expense of their employees having to gather the carts that were not returned, and to avoid damages by runaway trolleys. The deposit system has never really set foot on a widespread basis in the United States, with some foreign chains like
Aldi – who require a $0.25 deposit – as an exception to the general rule.
A system similar to the shopping trolley deposit is also used for
profit with
luggage carts at many
airports, where
companies like
Smarte Carte charge two or more
dollars (U.S.) (or equivalent) for
rental, and return a small token
reward of a quarter (25
¢) for returning carts to the other end of any
dispenser machine.
Theft prevention
Electronic
Theft deterrent systems are becoming popular in many shopping centers. An electronic system works by locking one of the wheels, usually one on the front, when the cart is rolled out of a designated area. Each shopping cart is fitted with an electronic locking wheel, or 'boot'. A transmitter with a thin wire is placed around the perimeter of the parking lot. The boot locks when the cart leaves the designated area. Often a line is painted in front of the broadcast range to warn customers that their cart will stop when rolled past the line. The locked wheel is usually unlocked with a portable electronic device carried by store staff called a "CartKey" that sends a signal to the boot, unlocking the wheel.
Physical
Another less high-tech form of theft prevention is with the use of a physical impediment. One method popular in smaller stores is to use a vertical pole attached to the cart which is of a height greater than the store's doors will allow past.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shopping Cart'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://shopping_cart.totallyexplained.com">Shopping cart Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
