I hope I'm asking this question in the right forum;

When I went to the A&P this morning I noticed wide yellow lines had been painted across all the entrances and exits to the parking lot. New signs were also erected stating that all supermarket shopping carts would automatically stop if pushed across the line.

When I entered the store I noticed a black box had been mounted on the front wheel of each shopping cart. I just couldn't resist the urge to push the cart over the yellow line, so when I finished shopping and loaded my car I went and pushed it over the line. A bar flipped down from the black box and prevented me from pushing the cart any further.

I hung around and sat in my car until the kid that collects the carts walked over for it. He pulled a handheld device from his pocket and aimed it at the wheel lock. It released, and then he rolled it into his train of carts.

How's this security system work?

 

Sounds to me like a buried perimeter (like an "invisible fence" for dogs.) From my basic understanding of how these work... There is a 12v DC supply that runs a buried perimeter line. This line gives off a very weak signal of some sort (the box never really says what kind of signal this is), when the "receiver" (ie: dog's collar, or cart control box, in your case) gets a signal from this line it trips the relay inside (dog's collar - shock or siren; shopping cart - wheel lock.)
Again, this is from a very basic understanding of buried perimeters, but I would think that's the type of technology that would have to be used. If it were prox readers, then the system would only work at the entrance/exit points, so what do you do when someone takes off with a cart over the grass on the side of the lot, etc?

Any other ideas??

This is the first I've heard of these systems, but I'm sure we're going to start seeing them a lot more. The perimeter itself is fairly inexpensive to setup, it's the wheel locks (that would have to be installed on every cart) that would be the expensive part.

Well, with a little research, I found it. Take a look at http://www.g8keeper.com

 

Thank you SafeWatch!

 

What will the homeless do about their need for shopping carts?

 

Good question, I guess they'll have to invest $100 in a shopping cart now. Hey, fine with me, just one more person I could sell a Gatekeeper to!!! If I can manage to get Gatekeeper to let me sell them.

 

That's wild! Sounds like a good idea to me. Now if they could just get people to put their carts somewhere besides into the side of my car when they're through I'd be ecstatic.

Kay

 

Yeah, I think I'm gonna add one of these transmitters to my Integra to keep carts away from it. Thanks for the idea Kay

 

Wow, I didn't think about that until you posted. Have those suckers lock up BEFORE they get to your car!

Kay