News

May 15, 2023

Answer Man: Anti

Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Today's batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: At Ingles on Tunnel Road, I noticed the shopping carts now have little red devices down by the wheels. Are these some sort of anti-theft device? How do they work? Is Ingles putting them in at all their stores?

My answer: This is a significant improvement over the previous anti-theft device — Laura Lynn physically tackling you at the edge of the parking lot as you attempt to abscond with a buggy.

Real answer: Ingles Chief Financial Officer Ron Freeman got in a pretty good "my answer" on this one, before getting serious.

"I'd love to be able to tell you the devices transmit subliminal messages that encourage customers to buy more higher margin products, but that simply would not be true," Freeman said. "In reality, grocery carts sometimes wander off, and we are trying out these devices to better keep track of them."

Ingles operates more than 200 stores in the Southeast, so it buys a lot of shopping carts. Freeman declined to say exactly how much they cost, but he did allow "they cost hundreds of dollars each and we have to replace hundreds each year for a variety of reasons."

Searching online, I found carts advertised for bulk purchase, with the smaller two basket models going for $125 apiece, if you buy 10 or more, and the larger wire buggies selling for $170 apiece. Those larger ones weren't as fancy as the Ingles models, though.

As far as if Ingles is using the devices at other stores, and how they work, Freeman was a bit cagey, with good reason.

"I would prefer not to provide additional information about how the devices work or which of our stores have them," Freeman said. "Not everyone's motives are pure when it comes to our carts."

Looking online, Gizmodo had an article about shopping carts and theft, noting that some of the anti-theft devices work by locking the wheels up if the cart "passes a certain perimeter around the shop. There's basically a trigger that sets off once a shopping cart moves too far and renders it unmovable by locking up the wheel."

Naturally, Wikipedia has a long entry about shopping carts, which it says can range from $75-$150 each, "with some models being $300–$400." The article also notes that cart theft is estimated to cost $800 million annually, worldwide.

Some chains use a cart retrieval service, in which a company retrieves carts and returns them to the store for a fee.

Other retailers use an "electronic locking wheel clamp, or 'boot,'" Wikipedia notes.

"A transmitter with a thin wire is placed around the perimeter of the parking lot, and the boot locks when the cart leaves the designated area," according to Wikipedia. "Store personnel must then deactivate the lock with a handheld remote to return the cart to stock."

Question: Currently DOT plans and city reviews have shown ideas which create fly-overs over the French Broad River, destroying what may even as soon as five years in the future become prime property for residences, special high tech industry and more. That area shown in plans affected by the "flyovers" (bridges) are industrial and other warehouses now. Why haven't DOT and city planners considered a tunnel going from present I-26 and then under the French Broad River?

My answer: Did you see the recent video of that dude flying into a soccer stadium on a souped-up drone? That's the only answer to any of this, folks — hovercraft! I'll just need one with the "super-lift" battery pack...

Real answer: Don't hold your breath for a tunnel.

"As your reader noted, the portion of the proposed I-26 connector over the river has several bridges going in varying directions," said Rick Tipton, division construction engineer with the North Carolina Department of Transportation's Asheville office. "This method would require constructing several wide intersecting tunnels under the river, costing several orders of magnitude more, therefore being impractical. Additionally, surface water, seepage, and supplying oxygen would be other large obstacles."

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 232-5847 or [email protected]