Shopping carts were made to move. Unfortunately they have a bad habit of rolling away even after you’re done pushing them.
After a frustrating trip to the store 4 years ago where he encountered cart problems of his own, Rudy E. Kieselat Sr. went home and formulated a new product that would help put the brakes on it – literally. While he isn’t the first person to think of a braking system that could be used on shopping carts, Rudy is the first to come up with something that requires no action on the part of the shopper, reports NorthJersey.com.
After that frustrating but ultimately fortuitous shopping trip, Kieselat hooked up with a product development firm to help market his product, but now he is independently looking to license his braking system to stores.
Not only can Kieselat’s braking system be installed on existing shopping carts, it also features a brake release bracket so several carts can be linked together to return them to the cart corral without having to individually disengage the braking mechanism from each cart to push the whole group.
“This braking system is a must for any store owner,” said Kieselat. “It is convenient, affordable, durable and easy to use. It gives the customer control over the cart, and there would not be any more runaway carts damaging cars in the parking lot.”
Some of the other shopping cart braking systems have a flaw in that they apply the brake to only one wheel, which still allows for the shopping cart to spin around in circles. With Kieselat’s system, two wheels are braked, and the cart stays put no matter how strong the wind or steep the parking lot’s incline.
“We have interviewed many people about the self-braking shopping cart, and all of them are eager to use it in the stores they shop in,” said Kieselat’s daughter Darlene Donnelly.
Photo by Robert S. Donovan