Cart 'em Off

Having lived in five different countries, and visited several more, I feel I am at least a little qualified to discuss certain aspects of culture and/or products that span the globe. One of these global products is the shopping cart. Being an American, I perhaps suffer from the arrogance of many of my countrymen in thinking that our products are better than others'. Oftentimes this is simply not true; we simply prefer what we are used to. However, on the subject of the shopping cart, I truly believe that America has the better product, and I truly cannot understand why the rest of the world doesn't follow. Actually, some of the rest of the world has; perhaps the shopping carts to which I refer began elsewhere. The trouble is, much of the world is deprived of this truly underappreciated product.

The key to the betterness of the shopping cart currently in use in America is wheels. In America, shopping carts have four wheels, just like everywhere else in the world. All four wheels rotate. However, in the American version, only TWO of the wheels turn--just like in automobiles. In cars, the front wheels are used for steering--they turn right and left--while the back wheels follow. Our shopping carts follow this same principle. And they are easy to steer for just that reason.

I first encountered a different type of shopping cart in London, and have since found them in Romania, Kenya, France, and Sri Lanka. I'm sure they exist in other countries. This type of shopping cart has FOUR wheels for steering. All of them turn right and left. and this is extremely annoying. I suppose the inventors of this type of cart figured that this style would make for tighter turns. I'm sure this can be achieved--in theory. However, in America, if I have trouble with a tight turn, I simply pick up the back end of the cart and make the turn. No matter how full my cart has been, this has never been difficult. Making tight turns--or any turn, for that matter--with the 'other' type of cart is nearly impossible, however. Instead, all turns are inevitably wide. Its just the way they are built.

You can tell which type of cart a country uses without actually trying them out. You just have to watch other shoppers. If they are pushing American style carts, they are going straight down the aisle. The 'other' type? They'll be going diagonally. Every time. This phenomenon is even more pronounced outside, when shooppers are navigating the slopes into the parking lot. They cannot be pushed straight.

I thought that perhaps this was just my American arrogance showing through. But no. I spoke to some friends who are not American, and do not live in America, but have visited America. To a man (ok, woman), they all preferred the American style.

Rise up, shoppers of the world! Let's demand steerable, controllable shopping carts. Things are already grim enough in the stores these days.