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Why are shopping carts always broken?

cnn.com

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Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#171

Post by ccozan »

hef19898 wrote: post #144
ccozan wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, too complex. Just use BLE with an app and this will unlock the cart. Very low friction and it does the cart customer matching. And make usage of carts mandatory ( door will not open.... )

Go on, go on! I feel we are on to something!

Could be! :)

But only one reserve I have: the carts have to be powered for connectiviy and the electric unlock mechanism. So they could be more expensive. But then let's add an ad screen ( E-Ink! ) on the front inside and have this solve the increase.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#172

Post by vladvasiliu »

dmarto wrote: post #124
milliams wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my local there's often a few columns of trolleys next to each other. I always go for the column with the fewest trolleys as I assume that the trolley sitting at the head of the longest column is likely to have an issue.

I do the same, but for a different reason. In my mind, they are less accessible, as the end of the line usually has metal guardrails, thus leaving the closer and easier-to-reach carts for other people. On the other hand, in my area, I have never seen a broken cart, perhaps because they require coins to operate.

In my area they also require coins, yet they're often busted in some way.

I think the root of the issue is the people who use them, coins or not.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#175

Post by thsksbd »

tsuru wrote: post #167

It's been 20 years but I still miss the all-wheel steering of my grocery in Japan (jasco). Every cart now feels broken without it, even Costco's.

European carts are like that, but I dislike them.

Four wheel steering solves a very nasty problem for Japan and Europe - need to turn on tight corners. Expensive real estate -> narrow aisles -> no room to maneuver the cart.

Win for four wheel steering.

The problem, however, is that the fixed rears anchor the cart. They help the cart to take a straight line. The greater steering effort is more than offset by not having to constantly juggle a cart trying to spin on itself. So if you have wide, long aisles like in the US two wheel steering is a lot less effort.

Pro tip - if your cart is very heavy, and there is a tight corner, steer it from the end opposite the handles. It'll literally turn on itself with very little effort

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#176

Post by hef19898 »

ccozan wrote: post #171
hef19898 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go on, go on! I feel we are on to something!

Could be! :) But only one reserve I have: the carts have to be powered for connectiviy and the electric unlock mechanism. So they could be more expensive. But then let's add an ad screen ( E-Ink! ) on the front inside and have this solve the increase.

Let's put it in a pitch deck! The idea isn't any worse than those non-transparent video screen fridge doors for super markets!

Hold on,ehat if the carts' screen could look inside the frudges and display the content? Augmented reality like? We just to figure out a way to make it all AI powered or something!

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#177

Post by thsksbd »

blinkingled wrote: post #57
jbandela1 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Publix tends to have pretty nicely maintained shopping carts. Part of the reason might be that they provide complimentary cart service where someone will push the cart out to your car and help load the groceries.

Ah yes forgot about Publix - and yeah more than once I have been asked by Publix employees if I needed help pushing the cart - they seemed to be happy to do it too!

Publix is the best. My wife's family used to work for them and the benefits were great.

Free college tuition for one. Defined retirement. Very decent health care (better than a well known Southern multinational you've heard about corporate care)

It's all gone now, I believe, now that the family list control of it (but I thought the employees owned half of it :S ?)

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#178

Post by thsksbd »

zaptrem wrote: post #115
blinkingled wrote: post #27

Not Costco's - have been to many over the years and they have some of the best maintained, good quality carts you don't mind dragging across their gigantic parking lot.

Also Ikea. It’s weird how quiet and easy they are to push.

Their carts' stack is FIFO, not LIFO so they get worn evenly.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#179

Post by mytailorisrich »

jdietrich wrote: post #166
mytailorisrich wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The impulse has to be to eat the tablets or whatever's on hand. Going all the way to the shop to stock up on tablets does not strike me as impulsive. So IMHO this restriction is an attempt at limiting the stock people have at home . Although I would argue this is none of the shop's business and, as far as I can gather, this is not a legal restriction.

It is a legal restriction and it has saved hundreds of lives. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK374099/

The pack size is a legal restriction, not the number of packs you can buy in one transaction as long as the total number of tablets does not exceed 100 (i.e. legal restriction is in effect 6 packs in one transaction), from what I understand, while the 2-pack restriction is a "voluntary best practice".

Those 'voluntary' limitations, and there are others, are a bit of a pet peeve of mine because they strike me as hypocrisy/posturing/paternalism.

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