Running a supermarket in a busy metropolis brings its own challenges. The supermarket manager explains: “Our supermarket is located in the middle of the city in a shopping centre with a lot of activity. People from all walks of life live in the area and this is reflected in our shop. In general, this is mostly a form of enrichment and conviviality, but unfortunately it also means that not everyone always feels like returning their shopping trolleys. We ran into them all over the place. Besides costing us money, we also noticed that customers we normally saw shopping weekly were now avoiding our supermarket. All this nuisance of wandering shopping trolleys put our neat shop in a bad light and our staff received quite a few complaints. We knew we had to do something to reduce the nuisance and keep a good atmosphere in the shop, in the neighbourhood and on the street.”
The issue was to stop shopping trolleys from leaving the premises. The director continued: “We were looking for a solution that would eliminate the need to pick up shopping trolleys everywhere and avoid getting angry looks from local residents. When we heard about Rocateq’s anti-theft solution, we were immediately excited. It became even more interesting for us when we decided to join forces with colleagues from another supermarket in the same shopping centre and share the costs. After all, the antenna cable only has to be laid once and then it functions for both supermarkets. In one day, Rocateq dug in the antenna cable around our car park and the Rocateq wheels the mechanics assembled in three different lights. They did this at the beginning of the day when it was quieter, so that shoppers did not notice anything. Even the car park remained accessible as usual, as we have multiple access points and the cable was laid in a few hours.”
Around the parking lot, Rocateq installed the antenna cable. The Rocateq Transmitter is installed securely and inside the shop, so it can always be reached.
The Rocateq wheels fit perfectly under any shopping trolley and were installed within a few hours. Customers are not inconvenienced by the change because the engineers perform the assembly during quiet hours and in sessions. Thus, there are always enough shopping trolleys available for customers.
After installation, the Rocateq team informed the supermarket staff about the operation of the new system. Through signs in the shopping trolleys and red marking lines, customers are also informed how everything works and it is clear to them how far they can take the shopping trolley in the parking lot.
A lot has changed in the supermarket since Rocateq’s solution was installed. The director enthusiastically says: “It was really beyond expectations. Since we have been working with Rocateq’s wheels, not a single shopping trolley has disappeared. People simply cannot take them anymore. The area around the shopping centre has been completely brightened up and no longer has such a cluttered look. We get compliments from the neighbourhood about our approach and we see customers returning who stayed away for a long time. The most important change is the overall atmosphere in our shop. Customers come in in good spirits again and chat happily with our staff. That’s a lot more fun for them to work than just getting complaints and angry comments. Last but not least, it obviously saves us the cost of having to pick up or replace missing shopping trolleys every time.”
Now that we have Cart Security in our supermarket, we hardly lose any carts. In 6 months we only lost 7 shopping carts!
View projectFind out how the Rocateq system prevents shopping trolleys lying around and brightens up your shop and neighbourhood.
