Walmart is changing its shopping carts at its 4,600 stores, but customers who have used them have mixed reactions.
The new shopping carts include additional features such as a cup holder, popular with fans of the Stanley Cup, and an area to place cell phones or a shopping list.
While the convenience of dedicated storage greatly decreased, many consumers were bothered by the increased height of carts (see our chart below).
The handlebars are now about 3.5 inches taller at 43.3 inches, which short people say has been annoying.
But there is an even bigger problem for short people with children. The child seat is almost 20 centimeters higher than in older strollers, so they can’t see where they are going.
“Dear Walmart, please explain to me how a person who is 5 feet tall or less can push those new tall carts you so stupidly acquired?” one outraged customer wrote on Facebook in response.
The food giant has made its carts taller and added a cup holder.
A Walmart customer posted a video on TikTok showing her standing face to face with her son while pushing one of the new shopping carts through a store.
The supermarket giant began rolling out taller carts in stores across the country over the past year.
‘My arms and shoulders really hurt from pushing that strange cart around the store!’ they added.
“Those carts are not made for us, people get off,” another chimed in in response to the publication.
Some were so outraged that they threatened to boycott the network entirely over the changes.
‘I stopped going to Walmart,’ one wrote in response to a Facebook thread on the topic.
Adding: ‘I don’t like new cars. Making fun of short people.
Others said the new measures made it harder to see while pushing their children in strollers.
“Walmart didn’t think about short people before purchasing these new carts,” one shopper explained in a TikTok video.
“I can barely see my daughter,” he complained.
A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider that the new design is aimed at improving customers’ shopping experience.
The average Walmart store has between 600 and 800 carts and super centers have up to 2,000, according to trolleymfg.com.
Walmart faces backlash from customers after launching new shopping cart
The shopping cart was invented by Fred and Sylvan Goldman in 1937.
The introduction of a pushed rather than carried basket revolutionized the way people shopped.
The new carts allowed consumers to purchase larger items and make an entire week’s worth of purchases in one trip.
That retail revolution, in turn, changed consumer habits for nearly a century.