h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You forgot to mention the double decker trolleys that are fast populating supermarkets. I think they are designed for boxes, so that when you scan your products yourself they go straight in the box and it's an easy matter to lift them straight into the car. If you've got muscles the size of beachballs that is.

You also neglected to mention the various types of childrens' seating combinations (which are available in every supermarket in the world except those in Germany grrrrrr ). You know the ones: 1 small baby, 1 kid, 2 small babies, 2 small kids, 1 baby 1 kid....... and I believe I also saw a disabled one with a baby attachment, but that could have been a wild and misleading dream (by me in Germany with 2 small kids having a terrible time doing supermarket shopping)

In the US as well as in some other countries (I believe) only the front two wheels swivvel (Sp.) initially this makes them a little harder to use, you have to shunt back and forth to get out of someones way or lift the back to scoot sideways. it does mean that there is 50% less chance of having a cart with one wonkey wheel. once you get used to a different style of trolley driving it is actually much easier.
It is possible, I imagine, to have a trolley with a rear two wheel swivvel does anybody know if this is the case anywhere?

An American guy I used to work with said that too (hey that's not you, is it Bob?) - anyway, I agree that having two fixed wheels makes cornering a lot easier (compare airport trolleys, for example). However, I can imagine that the getting-out-of-someone's-way thing is as bad as it sounds. Perhaps the swivelling rear wheels would be an answer to this problem? I should imagine that they would make it easier to back out of a tight corner, but unfortunately also harder to turn around quickly
The whole damn *world* is just waiting for anti-gravity. Imagine floating trolleys that could be pushed along with your little finger - or better still, follow you around automatically..

Or better yet, would do the shopping for you while you had a cup of tea and a fag. (That's cigarette)

Or whatever...

I thought that the double Decker trolleys had the lower shelf for heavy goods, Like potatoes.
Safeway self-scan, Now that's a shopping breakthrough!

A little while ago Safeways had trolleys with a pull-bar on the handle that enabled you to lock the back wheels in a forward-pointing direction. Let go of the bar anf you get the standard four-wheels-all-going-in-different-directions configuration. Nice idea but it didn't seem to really catch on.

Nowadays another alternative is to get on that Internet thing and have your shopping delivered. Iceland's good for that, but there are usually so mant buy-one-get-one-free offers that you can't get everything in the freezer.

Very true - I confess that there were several trolley add-ons that I neglected. Such as a lot of the new security systems - in our Safeways, if you go outside the supermarket area the wheels freeze and cannot move. You cannot push the trolley forward, which is really annoying as it means you cannot push your trolley to where a taxi is waiting - although it's easy enough to pick it up.

Also, I didn't say the Kudos involved in collecting a full shopping-trolley set. ie, one from every supermarket, and ones from exotic locations such as all the different airports, ferry ports etc... Even trolleys belonging to shops that no longer exist, ie Somerfield used to be Gateways, used to be International, used to be Home & Colonial. Owning a "Home & Colonial" trolley is far more impressive than owning a Somerfield one.

<BB<

...and now, nearly four years later, we see trolleys desguised to look like kiddy-cars! Great idea, but they're bigger than the average trolley, and get in everyone's way.

One could perhaps argue that they get in everyone's way LESS than the child occupant would, were he or she on foot.