Shaw's Said Providing Small Wheeled Baskets at 13 Stores
Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc. is reportedly providing an easier way for shoppers with just a few groceries to move their items through stores-new wheeled "Shop n' Roll" baskets it is offering at 13 Boston-area locations.
Piloted at Shaw's Prudential and Brookline Star Market stores last autumn, the baskets have four concealed wheels at the bottom. A traditional handle allows shoppers to carry the baskets, while a longer handle also allows them to pull the baskets long like a cart.
The hearty, lightweight plastic baskets are designed for shoppers who make more frequent trips to the store and buy only a few items.
"This allows them the possibility to move inside the store without having to carry all the items in their hands with the handheld baskets," Shaw's spokeswoman Judy Chong explained to the Boston Herald. "When you're picking up a half-gallon of milk and two-liter bottles of soda, it gets heavy."
The North American distributor of the Norwegian-made baskets, Boca Raton, Fla.-based SCS, Inc., added that the basket design, with its 28-liter capacity and maximum use load of 105 pounds, encourages some shoppers to buy more, since they don't have to continue to carry the baskets if they get too heavy.
West Bridgewater, Mass.-based Shaw's, a division of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu, has installed anti-theft labels on the baskets to prevent over-enthusiastic shoppers from making off with the new baskets.
Among the other U.S. supermarket chains using the baskets are Wegmans, Marsh, and Roundy's.
Piloted at Shaw's Prudential and Brookline Star Market stores last autumn, the baskets have four concealed wheels at the bottom. A traditional handle allows shoppers to carry the baskets, while a longer handle also allows them to pull the baskets long like a cart.
The hearty, lightweight plastic baskets are designed for shoppers who make more frequent trips to the store and buy only a few items.
"This allows them the possibility to move inside the store without having to carry all the items in their hands with the handheld baskets," Shaw's spokeswoman Judy Chong explained to the Boston Herald. "When you're picking up a half-gallon of milk and two-liter bottles of soda, it gets heavy."
The North American distributor of the Norwegian-made baskets, Boca Raton, Fla.-based SCS, Inc., added that the basket design, with its 28-liter capacity and maximum use load of 105 pounds, encourages some shoppers to buy more, since they don't have to continue to carry the baskets if they get too heavy.
West Bridgewater, Mass.-based Shaw's, a division of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu, has installed anti-theft labels on the baskets to prevent over-enthusiastic shoppers from making off with the new baskets.
Among the other U.S. supermarket chains using the baskets are Wegmans, Marsh, and Roundy's.