Why do shopping carts always break?

new york
CNN
—

It’s an almost inevitable part of a shopping trip. As I enter the store to buy a few essentials, I find myself pushing, pulling, lifting, and dragging my cart up the baked goods aisle, wheels squeaking against the linoleum and stalling.

A long-running urban legend holds that retailers intentionally make their carts unwieldy in order to slow customers down the aisles in hopes of diverting customers’ attention to more products. Thing. However, the public’s dissatisfaction is not the work of a mastermind in business psychology.

Alex Pross explained that the infamous belligerent wheels are actually created by the repeated impacts of shopping carts. Mr. Pross is the sales director for R.W. Rogers, which has supplied thousands of his shopping carts to companies such as Whole Foods, Tractor He Supplies, and Meijer.

Grocery store carts are more likely to have carts with unstable wheels than other types of retail stores, such as clothing stores or drug stores, where carts don’t leave the store often. Masu. Goods are usually carried out in one or two bags. That’s because the wheels are exposed to the elements much more often and environmental damage affects them. However, the main culprit is often not the wheels themselves, but the way they are attached to the cart.

Over time, the metal piece that attaches the wheel mechanism to the cart body can be used to pull the cart over uneven parking lots, over the thresholds of store entrances and exits, or to force it up and down curbs. The caster plate will become distorted. Poulos told CNN.

“If the caster plate twists even slightly, the wheels can lift and both wheels can no longer touch the ground at the same time,” he said.

In a perfect world, where carts were treated gently and used only indoors, standard 5-inch polyurethane shopping cart wheels would last six to eight years, says sales and marketing for wheel and caster manufacturer P&H Casters. said Alva Diaz, Vice President. In a 24/7 store environment, the lifespan of casters is likely to be 2-3 years, whereas metal casters have a lifespan of about 5 years.

But if you replace a wheel without paying attention to the plates and nuts and bolts that hold everything together, the new wheel can wobble just like the old one.

Consumers are partially responsible for any impact or damage to their shopping carts.

After shoppers load food into their cars, carts are left outside, at the mercy of extreme heat, snow, ice, and road salt. If left unattended for too long, the cart and its wheels may be damaged.

To combat this, European grocery retailers such as Aldi, Tesco, and Lidl are equipping their carts with coin locks. Customers insert coins, “check out” their cart, and get their coins back when they return the cart to its original location at the end of their shopping trip.

Although this system is not mainstream in the United States, it significantly increases the life of the cart and reduces wheel wobble.

“The coin lock ensures that the cart is always in place,” says Pross. “It improves cart maintenance and ensures a longer lifespan because the carts don’t sit in snowbanks or get blown away by the wind. It also requires more labor to find them and bring them back to the front of the store. there is no.”

One way to increase durability is to change the wheel material from common polyurethane to more expensive rubber.

Rubber wheels have been the mainstay of electric shopping carts for decades, said Beth Thiem, president and CEO of Amigo Mobility, which manufactured the first electric cart in 1968.

Carts used by customers with mobility issues must have a smooth and stable ride. That’s why these carts have rubber wheels without casters or caster plates, so they don’t roll or get stuck.

Retailers and manufacturers took notice of this design. Some large chains, such as Walmart and Target, have begun using rubber wheels on their carts.

Although rubber wheels cost twice as much as standard polyurethane wheels, Diaz said P&H Caster’s natural rubber wheels can last about 10 years as long as they are not abused by customers. In a crowded store environment, it can last for 4-5 years.

But many retailers are opting for cheaper parts, Ploss added, as more durable materials typically come with higher upfront prices. These companies end up having to replace these parts more often as they twist and deform, but these operations, just like carts, sometimes fail.