Walmart is quietly rolling out fancy new shopping carts with holders for Stanley Cups – but some shoppers are not happy
Walmart is changing its shopping carts across its 4,600 stores, but customers who have used them are giving mixed reactions.
The new shopping carts include additional features such as a cup holder, popular with Stanley cup fans, and a space for cell phones or a shopping list.
While the convenience of dedicated storage dropped nicely, many consumers remained annoyed by the increased height of the carts – see our chart below.
The handlebars are now about 3.5 inches higher at 43.3 inches, which short people say is annoying.
But there is an even bigger problem for short people with children. The child seat is almost 8 inches taller than in the old carts, meaning they can’t see where they’re going.
“Dear Walmart, please explain to me how someone 6 feet tall or less can push those new tall carts you foolishly purchased?” one outraged customer wrote on Facebook in response.
The grocery giant has made its carts bigger and added a cup holder
A Walmart customer posted a video to TikTok showing her standing face to face with her child as she pushed one of the new shopping carts through a store
The supermarket giant has started rolling out larger trolleys to stores across the country over the past year.
“My arms and shoulders really hurt pushing that crazy cart through the store!” they added.
“Those carts aren’t made for us little people,” said another in response to the post.
Some were so outraged that they threatened to boycott the chain altogether because of the changes.
“I stopped going to Walmart,” one person wrote in response to a Facebook thread on the matter.
Adding: ‘I don’t like the new carts. Making fun of little people.’
Others claimed the new measurements made it harder to see while pushing their children on the carts.
“Walmart wasn’t thinking about little people before getting these new carts,” one shopper explained in a TikTok video.
“I can barely see around my daughter,” she complained.
A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider that the new design is intended to improve customers’ shopping experience.
According to trolleymfg.com, the average Walmart store has between 600 and 800 carts, while supercenters can maintain as many as 2,000.
Walmart is facing backlash from customers after rolling out a new shopping cart
The shopping cart was invented in 1937 by Fred and Sylvan Goldman.
The introduction of a pushed rather than carried basket revolutionized the way people shopped.
The new carts allowed consumers to purchase larger items and purchase an entire week’s worth of groceries at once.
That retail revolution, in turn, changed consumer habits for nearly a century.