2-Story Target and their Cartalator
May 21, 2007 on 10:48 am | In gadgets, funny, inventions, business |
So while in San Diego for the weekend, we decided to go to the mall do a little time-killing before we headed back to our simple lives in the good ol’ IE. Well, we found a Bed Bath and Beyond, and seeing as how me and Sarah are going to be getting an apartment soon, we decided to go in and get some decorating ideas and whatnot. Well, we were both surprised when it turned out to be a 2-story building. When we decided to go up to the second floor, we were both joking about how we should try to get the shopping cart on the escalator with us. But instead we just did it the boring old fashioned way and took it up with us on the elevator. I know, I know… so cliche.
Anyways, while we were riding up, I was thinking to myself of ideas on how a system could be made to accommodate shopping carts going up or down a story. Somewhat along the lines of an escalator system. Well, I left it at that and didn’t think about it much more afterwards.
After we left Bed Bath and Beyond, we went to the other side of the mall and found Target, my girlfriend’s OCD-friendly fantasy store. As much as she loves Target, I wasn’t surprised at how thrilled she was to learn that just like Bed Bath and Beyond, this store too was two stories. Up where we live, we have ever yet to see a 2 store Target. I honestly didn’t think they could have that much crap to sell.
What’s great about this Target is the fact that they had solved the shopping cart escalator problem! We were both as mesmerized with this thing much in the same way that Asian tourists are with a pretty blonde girl in Las Vegas. I felt like an idiot taking the footage of this thing in action, but I knew what I had to do. I was on a mission to bring back a sight of the new world to the people of the IE! So behold: the Target Cartalator! (Well, if I got to name it anyway…)
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I can’t believe it. That thing is incredible!
Comment by Bryan Villarin — May 21, 2007 #
Yeah, this is really cool, i’ve seen this in numerous places already though like bedbathandbeyond in sf. Well, yeah, this is too old news but still, it’s cool you have a hot girlfriend!
Comment by max — May 22, 2007 #
Haha…thats funny that bryan’s like the only person who’s never seen it. So-cal needs to get up with the technology.
and thanks, max. lol.
Comment by askmeques — May 23, 2007 #
In Melbourne, Australia we have escalators that are slopes rather than steps (not as steep), with grooves that align with grooves around the trolley wheels, so the trolley locks into the slope without running away from you. This is pretty standard in most shopping centers. I’ll post a photo if anyone is interested.
Comment by timg — May 27, 2007 #
One of my local supermarkets here in England has a second storey. They have ramped travelators connecting it to the ground floor. The moving floor of the travelators appears to be a specially grooved rubber, which is a perfect fit for the flanged wheels of the trolleys (shopping carts). You just walk onto the travelator pushing your trolley, and the wheels lock into position. They don’t move an inch until you get to the top, where the metal off-ramp is angled to force the trolley wheels up and out of the grooves. Magic!
(PS. I saw the same system in a hypermarket in Paris in 1994.)
Comment by crazyscot — May 28, 2007 #
Hasn’t that been around for ages?
I know it has around were I live (France), and we have that kind that adjust to shopping cart or shopping basket, and another system that have holes on the shopping cart wheels and bittsy things on a ‘flat’ elevator, they connect and block the wheels so that you can take your shopping cart with you.
Comment by carotte — May 28, 2007 #
Been around for a long time; the concept was pioneered by Schindler back in the 1980s.
Comment by j s — July 5, 2007 #