The Y Files

I think I get that very same shopping cart close to every time I go shopping.

Then came the big dis-improvement: the plastic shopping cart--witness walmart, home depot,... but it appears that these big stores are finally changing back to all metal, as they find that more carts are inoperative than not. A local walmart has about a hundred plastic carts, only about 10 still roll after several months. The home depot only has about 4 or 5 plastic carts still running. Sometimes...usually...metal is still the best.

Well when you look at what people load into shopping carts at home depot, no wonder they fail. Metal carts aren't going to be much more usefull when they fill them with 10 bags of concrete, plumbing fixtures and a few sheets of plywood.

well, that shopping cart looks and is in better condition than some cars I've seen on the road. And safer too.

That would be true, but from what I've observed at Depots those kinds of heavy items are almost invariably carted on the heavy, steel flat carts and lumber carts that Depot also provides--most likely because it is very difficult to lift things like Sakrete into and out of a grocery style cart. In fact, the plastic carts are as likely as not to be almost empty during most of their use--rarely as loaded as in a grocery supermarket. I suspect that much of the rapid damage occurs during handling by store personnel as they gather and move the carts en masse. Also, the plastic carts are so frequently smashed together in the cart area in the parking lots. My previous comments were based on observations that stores can keep metal carts in largely good working order for years and years--the reluctant metal cart is a rare metal cart--even a decade or more; but the plastic carts have pretty much had it after two or three years, often much less. I would again submit: that WalMart must have finally figured out that the extra cost of metal carts will pay off in the longer term; and thus are transitioning out of the plastics and back to the metal carts. Yes, with some things, cheap is more expensive when the true cost is known. I suspect also that a primary incentive for the cheaper plastic carts is cart theft. However, I observed that one big store nearby has come up with a good solution. They permit their customers to take their metal carts home and bring them back as needed. To make this work better, they painted all their metal carts in distinctive store colors... so they are readily recognized wherever they may be. The store also permits the less fortunate (folks with no owned transportation) to also use the carts...and one can often see the stores carts "parked" near area bus stops, waiting to be picked up and returned back to the store by borrowers returning on the busses. Remarkably, that store never seems to have any shortage of carts (as one might expect) so evidently their honor among neighbors system (even in a town known as Baghdad of the West for its thievery) works pretty well. Stores on the east coast have a different approach to cart preservation: the carts are not permitted to be moved away from the store and out onto the parking lots. Instead, one drives to the store entrance area and unloads one's cart (from behind cart retention barriers) into one's car. This takes some getting used to for someone from other parts of the country...but the advantages soon become obvious: much less traffic congestion in the lots; no carts in the lot to run into cars or be run into by cars; carts that always roll flawlessly inside the stores because they have not been subjected to parking lot and traffic rigours. I for one would much rather push a heavier cart with wheels that roll true and easily, than a light plastic cart with wheels that don't.

I was just in a store t'other day that had just that system...two hand baskets stacked up on a wheeled rack, just like the illustration. It was a jewelry wholesalers. They looked like they were machine made just like regular shopping carts, so I suppose anybody could order them.

One local store here in Ottawa installed stantions to prevent carts from leaving the service area. They also had to install a guard to reduce theft out of the unattended carts. I notice they now allow you to take the cart to your car. I suspect the replacement and repair of carts was less than the cost of a guard.