Video: It’s just a pushable basket you use to store groceries and occasionally ride around the aisles on, so why do shopping trolleys cost $US100 ($131) each? Science Channel details how the shopping trolley is made with 68m of a steel cage covered in Telfon, how the bumpers can withstand 48km/h crashes and how the wheels use the same material as roller coasters. It all adds up to a lightweight trolley that can hold 160kg of stuff and survive over 35,000 shops across the span of a decade.
But all that good stuff needs to be protected with its own anti-theft system. In some carts, the wheels lock up if it passes a certain perimeter around the shop. There’s basically a trigger that sets off once a shopping trolley moves too far and renders it unmovable by locking up the wheel.