When you buy shopping carts for your grocery store, you shouldn’t do it with a one-size-fits-all mentality. You need to pick products that will meet your location’s specific requirements. Read below for tips on choosing the right grocery carts for your store’s needs.
Pick the Right Material
The first tip for choosing the right grocery carts for your store’s needs is to pick ones featuring materials that will meet your requirements. Usually, you have the option of choosing between steel or plastic carts. However, both have certain advantages over the other.
For example, if you need a sturdy cart, steel is stronger than plastic, but it can also develop rust over time. If you go with plastic, it will not rust, but it can crack after extended exposure to sunlight. Plastic is also less resistant to impact damage than metal carts. You should look at both materials’ traits and pick the one that is the better fit for you and your store.
Consider Cart Size
It is also important to ensure your future carts are the right size for your customers and your store. After all, you don’t want your carts to be so small that your shoppers run out of room for their purchases. They would need to get another cart to bring all their items up to the checkout lanes and would certainly see that as an inconvenience.
You can prevent this from happening by tracking your highest-selling products and determining the average product size in your store. After acquiring this information, you can decide whether you need large shopping carts or smaller ones to best accommodate your customers and their purchases.
You should also consider the width of your aisles when choosing the right cart size. If you pick a cart that is too big for your aisles, your customers won’t be able to navigate through them or around other shoppers easily. Make sure you pick a cart size that allows two-way traffic to flow in your store’s aisles.
Make Sure the Carts Have Mobility
Size can impact how easy it is for a customer to move a shopping cart around your store, but so can the cart’s mobility. If you want to provide your customers with a stress-free, easy experience in your store, purchase carts that give them plenty of mobility.
Look for carts that customers can move by holding them on any side, not just the handle. This maneuverability will make shopping easier and more pleasant for patrons. It might even help you nurture a base of repeat customers who appreciate your store’s commitment to convenience.
Don’t Forget About the Depth
Don’t overlook depth when choosing carts. How far a customer must bend over to place an item inside their cart or pull it out at the checkout lane can affect their experience in your store.
If you have a customer base that includes a large percentage of seniors, you may want to consider buying carts with shallow depth. These will allow seniors with back conditions to put items in their carts and remove them more easily, decreasing the risk of injury or discomfort.
Look for Kid-Friendly Options
If you have a substantial percentage of customers who bring their children into the store, you should buy carts with kid-friendly options. For example, stock up on carts that feature comfortable seating spaces for children.
These seats should allow parents to keep an eye on their children while keeping the kids safe. You also may want to consider buying mini carts for kids. These will allow the children to stay occupied as they follow their parents through the store. Plus, kid carts even allow kids to lend their parents a helping hand by carrying some items in their smaller carts.
Seek Out Opportunities for Customization
If your store is in a very competitive market, you will want to look for ways your business can stand out. One way to do that is through customization of your shopping carts. Find a shopping cart provider that can help your carts stick out more easily than the ones at other stores.
One way suppliers can do that is by selling you plastic carts that feature the same logo as your store or are the same color as your brand. These elements will help you create more uniformity in your store and leave a stronger impression on your customers’ minds.
Get Space-Saving Carts
The last several points have focused primarily on customers’ needs when using carts, but now it’s time to focus on others who will be using them: you and your employees. Every day, staff members will transport the carts from the corrals in your parking lot to the inside of your store, where they will need to store the carts.
If you want to help your business save space, pick carts that will provide you with ease of storage. This should allow you to have an appropriate number of carts to accommodate your customers without taking up too much valuable floor space in your store. You will be glad to have that additional space since you may need to buy more carts someday or expand your store’s offerings.
Find a Trustworthy Supplier
Lastly, another thing you will need to do during this process is find a supplier of shopping carts that you can rely on. As you go through the process of considering various vendors, take the time to read any reviews or testimonials on their websites. This will give you an impression of their level of service and quality.
If the provider has earned positive feedback from their past clients, try to learn more about that specific supplier’s inventory. This information can help you decide whether the vendor has the right number of carts that can accommodate your store’s needs.
Overall, considering these factors will help you to make better decisions in choosing the right carts for your grocery store. If you need a provider of quality shopping carts for your location, contact us at Carriage Trade Service. We have new and refurbished plastic and metal carts that will meet your needs. Shop with us today!
