Why One Wheel On Your Shopping Cart Is Always Busted!

One of the biggest mysteries in life is why every other shopping cart at the store has a busted wheel.  How have we not solved that yet!?

The old myth was that grocery stores did it on purpose to slow you down and make you buy more stuff.  If you could just zip through the aisles, you wouldn’t make impulse purchases.  But that’s not really true.

According to one of the companies that makes those carts, the real reason behind stuck wheels is more innocent.  The carts just get used A LOT.  And mistreated.

Stuck wheels aren’t as common at other retailers like clothing stores, because the carts get used less.  And the ones at grocery stores ALWAYS get taken outside into the elements.  When you’re just buying pants, you carry them out in a bag.

Over time, rolling through the parking lot warps the metal caster plate underneath each wheel, which can make the wheel stick or lift up off the ground.  Those caster plates tend to only last five years before they need replacing.  And most stores replace them as needed, not all at once.  So that’s why so many carts have at least one funky wheel.