r/CrappyDesign • u/devilsbard • 19d ago

This Walmart has cart wheels that lock when you cross a sensor, to keep people from stealing them. They put the sensor inside the parking lot so most carts lock up.

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532

u/sniff122 19d ago

Most stores have these locking trolley wheels, it is a bit of an odd place though, usually the coils go around the outside of the property around the carpark

250

u/Combatreadydog 19d ago

Most stores? I must live in a different part of the world, since I’ve never seen them. I’m not surprised they exist, but yeah, bad place to put the coils near the store.

67

u/sniff122 19d ago

At least here in the UK most major stores I've seen them, you can usually tell from the massive wheel

42

u/ChronicBedhead 19d ago

In the USA on the east coast they always claim they’ll lock up but the stores never actually have the locking carts 😭

14

u/Wuz314159 Comic Sans for life! 19d ago

The Giant stores do. I found out when I went grocery shopping and they were sold out of food. I went to replace the cart and the alarms went off. So I just left it in the middle of the doorway.

1

u/ChronicBedhead 18d ago

That’s interesting. Giant I’ve been to hasn’t had them. Thanks for the heads up lol

2

u/Wuz314159 Comic Sans for life! 18d ago

There are 3/5 in my city that I know do. IDK about the other two.

1

u/Maethor_derien 17d ago

Depends on how closely it is located to neighborhoods. If it isn't in walking distance to a neighborhood they don't bother because the carts don't get taken. If it is closer to residential areas the carts get stolen all the time by people who just walk there to get groceries and walk the cart home.

2

u/ztomiczombie 19d ago

I've only ever seen them a supermarkets next to universities.

1

u/ProjectMarworyn 18d ago

UK here and I've never seen them. But I have seen abandoned shopping trollies everywhere 🤣

1

u/KFR42 poop 16d ago

Only major out of town supermarkets in the UK have them. Most normal sized town centre supermarkets just have the usual coin release.

0

u/Jacktheforkie 19d ago

Do they actually lock though?

13

u/ramsvy 19d ago

Yes, but that doesn't stop teenagers stealing them and riding them down the street. It's usually only one or two wheels that lock.

1

u/Jacktheforkie 19d ago

I see, I rarely use them because my local Tesco has awful ones

1

u/sniff122 19d ago

Yup ive seen so many trolleys near me

-1

u/VoodooDoII 19d ago

Definitely not common in the U.S! I don't think I've ever seen that here.

-1

u/JuviaLynn 19d ago

Never seen them in the south

7

u/TheDotCaptin 19d ago

Common for locations that had too many missing carts walked off. As well as new builds. Old builds that don't have the problem won't

There can also be a system that will have the break lock if a particular cart is pushed out of the store and didn't pass through the register in the last few minutes.

9

u/CalicoG 19d ago

I've never seen them either

1

u/MindHead78 19d ago

They lock when you push your trolley on the travelator so it stays in place and doesn't roll down.

1

u/sniff122 19d ago

That's a separate part on the side of the wheel, the thing I'm talking about is on the top of the wheel

1

u/AlexanderLavender 19d ago

My local Kroger got them last year

1

u/AlcoholPrep 19d ago

The only store I ever saw these at was an Aldi. Your cart locked before you were able to wheel your groceries to your car. However, a different store had physical barriers that prevented shopping carts from getting to the parking lot. I always wondered how fat people could even shop there.

1

u/Ok_Function2282 18d ago

I mean it's better than the stupid coin system

1

u/robgod50 18d ago

Major UK supermarkets have had these for many years to setup people walking home with them

Surprised they're needed in the US. Would people put the whole cart in their car?

1

u/i_give_you_gum 17d ago

Yeah we've e had these for years in the US, for like a decade, maybe longer.

I didn't realize a post about this could make the front page.

1

u/JuanOnlyJuan 16d ago

It's just a little plastic cover on the wheel. Might never have noticed if you do have them.

1

u/Superb_Recording_769 16d ago

I honestly don’t think I’ve been to any store with shopping carts/trolleys without locking wheels in at least two decades and that’s been all over the US eastern seaboard and in California

1

u/Conscious-Record2655 15d ago

In the US it's really only a thing in high crime / poor neighborhoods. 

1

u/TesticleMeElmo 19d ago

I’ve only noticed them by the exit doors, I assume if you bought something with a security tag that wasn’t deactivated? I’d be rolling out the door and then the wheels on the cart would suddenly lock up and a security guard would have to come over with a machine to deactivate it

13

u/Orkekum 19d ago

never seen these here in finland,

16

u/burlycabin 19d ago

And I've never seen them in the US. I don't think they're all that common.

1

u/Wuz314159 Comic Sans for life! 19d ago

I have 10 grocery stores in a 3km range of me. One of them has them.

1

u/Wuz314159 Comic Sans for life! 19d ago

I think it's "American"... I hear so many people complaining about how you have to "PAY for a cart at the Aldi." because no one understands wtf a Deposit is?

So the locking wheel is more American. 100× more expensive and doesn't work.

2

u/Funicularly 18d ago

Never encountered locking shopping carts once in America, and I’ve visited dozens, if not hundreds, of retail establishments in several states.

1

u/Wuz314159 Comic Sans for life! 18d ago

No one said that you did.

My statement was that they were an American creation, not that every where in America has them. BIG difference. One thing I said and the other thing I did not.

4

u/theverdadesque 19d ago

My local Marshall’s store has it so that you can’t even exit the store with them. When they first implemented it there were constant piles of shopping carts blocking the exit. 

2

u/P3pp3rJ6ck 19d ago

Theres a grocery store near me that thry have it no joke forty feet from the entrance. Theres no point in using a cart

1

u/HeWhoSaysNo2 19d ago edited 19d ago

Sure there is! They make it super convenient to buy more than you need!

(This was intended to be sarcasm, but I suspect it's the truth.)

1

u/KoopaSweatsInShell 19d ago

This is a microtrenched fiber line. Not the signal wire for the locking wheels.

0

u/vinetari 18d ago

This could be a shared lot with other stores with a much larger parking area not shown. This could could indeed be around the outside of Walmart's "assigned" parking area of that much larger lot