Used QHDC TQ Series review

Behold, the shopping trolley. Humankind’s greatest four-wheeled achievement.

Few other vessels of mobility and utility approach the sheer perfection demonstrated by the device used in all corners of the globe with names such as cart, basket, buggy, carriage, barrae, coohudder, bascart, wagon, trundler and, of course, trolley. If it qualified for inclusion in any big-name car(t) of the year awards regimes, the humble grocery-getter’s outstanding excellence in all criteria of Function, Technology, Efficiency, Safety and Value would see it dominate over anything motorized. If the shopping trolley indeed fitted a motor (though some obscure examples do…).

Henry Ford, Enzo Ferrari, these icons pale against the titan that was Sylvan Goldman, owner of Humpty Dumpty supermarket, Oklahoma. Internet lore states that Goldman debuted the first shopping cart in mid-1937 before evolving a metal-framed, wire-basket version he’d secure patent for in 1940, making him extremely wealthy.

Six years later, another trolley innovator, Orla Watson, developed the trolley’s signature rear swinging door allowing ‘nesting’, for elegantly convenient telescope-style storage. Of course, Goldman and Watson would confront each other in a court of law, but their combined legacies changed mobility forever.

The shopping trolley is functional purity at its finest. It’s fitness for purpose is 11 out of ten. No other device capable of transporting payload offers the same degree of packaging smarts, or can carry quiet as much payload for its given physical size. And Watson’s genius nesting design means no other forms of mobility can be parked or stowed in multiples quite so succinctly.

From ‘small-shop’ compacts to jumbos and Ikea-grade furniture flatbeds, there’s a body style for every need and none demand licensing, age requirements or specialized tutorial for operation. Indeed, some supermarkets offer kid trollies.

Child occupancy? When used as directed – usually via a female voice between yacht rock tracks over the supermarket PA – they’re perfectly safe, with child lap-sash belts, high-impact construction and oh-so-clever self-locked travellator wheels almost universal fitment today.

As countless instances of late-night drunken excess have proven over the decades, adults can also fit into shopping trollies even if, in terms of social acceptability, shopping trollies aren’t necessarily ideally fit for adults-as-juveniles. Besides, intoxicated shopping is generally frowned upon…

That’s not to say carts are completely imbecile-proof, as the spatially unaware demonstrate frequently in shopping aisles, but thankfully shopping trollies are so robust and durable that they’ll come off better than any painted concrete wall or Toyota 70 Series Land Cruiser they might confront in the carpark.

Forward, backwards, sideways at any angle or trajectory, the shopping cart offers the sort of maneuverability a Honda Jazz only dreams of. Even a wobbly wheel, the scourge of older, well-used examples, won’t impinge desired progress as it might do your average Audi Q7 with a flat tyre or a bent axle.

Visibility in all directions, due to the see-through construction, is virtually uninhibited. Ease of parking is such that no electronic sensors or cameras are required. And they even come with dedicated parking area allocation for utmost convenience.
Performance? Like motoring’s finest, the shopping trolley is really as fast as you want it to be, gravity allowing. That said, much like even the world’s most-capable Autobahn stormers, high-speed stability can become compromised with extremes in velocity. And fun? A humble cart can drift to lengths and breaths that even Japanese underground car culture would be jealous of.

Pricing and ownership costs are also highly seductive. ‘Free’ is measurably thriftier than Uber or Car Next Door though actual range and A-to-B convenience can be somewhat limiting. Don’t like the one you’ve got? Swap it out in an eye’s blink, no paperwork, credit card or government tariff required.

Insurance premiums and excess? Nil. Depreciation factor? Nothing. Obligations? None. The only running costs only potentially sail as high as a two-dollar coin if you’re particularly clumsy dealing with ‘deposit lock’ tyranny adopted by some retail establishments.

The shopping trolley is elegant and simplified perfection. Its proof of concept is that it’s remained largely unchanged for so long, despite the occasional and superfluous meddling such as the odd cupholder, info-shopping tablet integration or proximity-activated electronic wheel clamps that tend to disappear as quickly as they arrive. It’s been so right for so long that it doesn’t need as much as a face-lift, let alone any revolutionary change.

For sheer staying power, the shopping trolley is untouchable. As doomsday cinema is always quick to remind us, the only things that will surely remain after the apocalypse will be zombies, cockroaches, rubble…and supermarket carts.

And what a fine testament to human achievement that will be.