Making extremely obnoxious screeching sounds as customers push them along. It’s really frustrating to me. In other stores the carts just glide and you can’t even hear them.
Does this bother anyone else or it’s just me?
I’ve had screeching and non-screeching shopping carts at Walmart and at non-Walmart stores. It’s just a matter of chance.
I haven’t had that experience at my local Wal-Mart many times but I have at other stores. If it is bothering you that much, it may be worth it to either talk to the store manager or contact their corporate headquarters directly about it. Believe it or not, Wal-Mart is all about consistency and reliability across all their stores and they are bigger than many countries. Their Operations group will respond if you make an official complaint.
I have never worked for Wal-Mart directly but I am quite familiar with their corporate structure and I have worked in the headquarters of several other famous retail chains. We always liked it when customers gave a specific, actionable complaint about one of our stores because it gave them tips on how to improve. Customer complaints of that nature were always followed up and acted upon. Buying a bunch of new shopping carts for a store isn’t that difficult or expensive. If the existing ones are defective, they would love to know that too so that they can call the vendor and tell them to replace them or be banished forever.
epic :d
I’ve wondered if retail stores repair their carts. A fresh set of casters is all most of them need. A pretty simple repaIr.
I’ve had carts so bad that one wheel would be frozen. It just skids along the floor. The other three shrieking to high heaven for a drop of oil.
I think things are allowed to get that bad because no one complains and/or management don’t care.
I experienced this at Rite Aid and it was excruciating. Apparently the person who had the squeaky cart did not realize how squeaky it was.
The front ones, yes. Often the rear ones are welded on.
Oil is an extremely temporary fix. Temporary is in days, maybe hours in a place like walmart. Once they’re making that kind of noise the bearings are probably gone and and now it’s either just the outer and inner bearing chase rubbing against each other or just some of the bearings are gone and the wheel is locked up. Either way, some oil may free it up and quiet it for a little while, something heavier like white lithium grease may buy you a more time, but a place as big as Walmart or Target, why bother? There’s no reason to put any maintenance into a cart when it’s at that point and they can put a new one in for probably less than a hundred dollars (and possibly get a few bucks from the recycler for the old one).
Also, keep in mind, how often do you walk into a big box store like that and find all the carts in use? IME, there’s usually 50 or so stacked up by the door. So they can reasonably throw them away as soon as they have a problem with them and when that 50 cart cache is down to 20, order another 30.
Now, a small mom n pop store like mine…yes, we will grease wheels, replace them and do anything else we can to put off buying new carts for as long as possible. Spending a few grand on shopping carts is a much bigger deal for us, so if we buy them today and in 5 years they start making some noise, we’ll do what we can to make them last another few years.
Much of the problem is caused by the way the carts are collected and brought back in from the parking lot. Since only the front wheels swivel, the cart collector guys have to skid or slide long lines of carts sideways to steer them. This wreaks havoc on the wheels. It’s not long before all of the rear wheels have flat thumpity-thump spots on them.
I have a friend who traveled all over during his years in the army. He said some in some places, the shopping carts all had four-wheel swivel casters. Maybe Wally World should look into that.
A local supermarket recently replaced all their carts. It was the simplest thing to do, I guess.
At my store we don’t do that and they still make noise after a while. Wheels (or rather the bearings) just wear out, it’s what they do.
Regarding all 4 wheels swiveling, my concern with a place as big as walmart is that the person bringing them back in would too easily lose control of them. If you’re pushing 10 or 20 or 30 carts, you’d have wouldn’t be able to stop them if they decided to go sideways or if the end you’re not at wanted to fishtail.
Occasionally, but its usually the shoppers at a Wal-Mart that are extremely loud, to the ears and the eyes.
As far as I am aware, all European shopping trolleys have four castors. It may be because aisles here are narrower, or it may just be because they always have been. The only other layout I see is in DIY stores where they have special carts for heavier/larger goods. These are a flat platform with an axle in the centre; and a single central castor at the front and rear. This layout makes for a highly maneuverable but easy to steer trolley - it doesn’t wander off sideways.
Most supermarkets have a bay for damaged trolleys. The problem with the four castor design is that if one wheel becomes jammed for any reason, the thing becomes impossible to steer, so people just abandon them before they start shopping.
I have seen a van collecting damaged trolleys from supermarkets, and I guess that some enterprising business had contracts to collect and repair or scrap them.
There are people who walk to the store and then take a trolley home with their shopping in spite of various attempts by stores (like having a rough stretch of pavement) to prevent it. These trolleys end up in all kinds of places; used in gardens as incinerators, by children as go-carts, etc. Unfortunately they often end up as eyesores in streams and ponds. I believe that the supermarket has to pay for their recovery, and most of them advertise a telephone number to call to arrange collection of stolen trolleys.
Why is this in GQ?
Walmart just has it more obvious because their carts get used more and (most lekely) serviced less than those at other chains.
There is a shopping cart repair service – I occasionally see the truck at a store working on them. Big box truck with a welder, angle grinders, and boxes of spare wheels. They do some of the worst welding I’ve ever seen, but hey, as long as it works, and they sure as hell ain’t paying their mechanics pipefitter wages.
They’re expensive enough to be worth welding back together and replacing wheels. They don’t even usually have to cut off the wheel mount, just take out the axle bolt and pop in a fresh wheel and bearing. Ever owned a skateboard? Same principle, you don’t replace the trucks when a bearing dies.
And noses. 
My little tiny store bought ten shopping carts for about $160 each (shipped). I would wager that the big carts that a big box store uses, with their buying power has to get get them a price at something around half that. I’ve never in my life seen a shopping cart (in a big box store anyways) welded together. If for no other reason, it would terrible.
Yes, unbolting old wheels and putting in new ones would be easy, as for why they don’t, I can only guess. Perhaps they’ve decided that shopping carts are a ‘consumable’, and they’re not worth putting money into, or that once a cart needs a repair it’s better to just get rid of it. Once one wheel makes noise, the other three aren’t far behind and besides, this might be why all the carts are (generally) quiet, look nice and feel like they just pulled off the show room floor.
What causes the clicking of a grocery cart wheel?
And, the best thread ever on the mechanics, theoretical and practical:
Why do shopping carts always pull to the left?
Frankly I’m surprised that you could hear the squeaking over all of the noise the other shoppers usually make at Walmart!
Rodney Carrington’s take on Walmart. Time to whup your kids!