Reminds me the first time I saw "No Strollers" at the escalator entrance to a US shopping mall, which I took to mean the tramps/druggies wandering around aimlessly should stay outside. Actually, it means no push chairs, which would explain why there were a number of tramps/druggies wandering around aimlessly inside...
Aren't most trolleys used in the US made by a British guy who was featured in "This Old House"?
The ones I have seen also have a claw / sawtooth type feature.
I borrowed one to assist in moving house. I took it back.
Owain
Slightly OT, but at (I think) Zurich Airport they have got luggage trolleys which can go up and down proper (step-type) escalators - and remain upright!
The big new Tesco in [[Bradley Stoke|Sadly Broke]], Bristol has the trollies outside, shop inside and a sufficiently magnetic device in the floor near the doors that it locks the wheel on every trolley you try and use. The brake is a rubber block on a swinging plastic arm. The only trollies that remain usable are those where someone has wrenched the plastic arm sideways and wedged it out of the way on top of the castor. Ghastly shop, and the "customer service" people are so unhelpful they blame the poor shopper for being unable to work the trollies.
Mind you, the guy that had working in the petrol station there a few weeks ago surpassed even that. Probably the Angriest Man in Retail, he got so irate with one driver that he ended up banging the card reader on the glass window in front of him and screaming. Very funny to watch, but I can't imagine Tesco really intend their staff to behave like that.
Nearer home...Victoria Station!
He must have been on the same training course as one of the ticket office people at Bedford Station on Monday, who tried to insist in the snottiest way possible that the ticket I've bought every week for 2 years doesn't exist, and when one of the others offered to help snapped "I know what I'm doing". Which was patently untrue.
Why don't these people get jobs that don't involve interacting with the public if they hate it so much?
Hmm, not sure. If so, I do wish he'd had the sense to make the rear wheels pivot (as they do on UK ones) - having to physically pick up a fully-loaded trolley in a packed shop so you can move it sideways and get around things is a real pain in the backside.
I've seen stroller used in the UK before, too (by Maclaren, I think it was, who I believe are a UK company) a couple of years ago. I was told later that 'stroller' was originally a UK term though, then adopted by the US, then dropped by the UK in favour of pushchair.
Lots of US terms seem to be like that - if you trace them back, they were once common UK ones, but fell out of favour in the UK whilst being retained in the US.
I was also surprised when I moved to the US at how many terms and pronunciations* which I'd always thought as being "UK only" were in use here.
cheers
Jules
I once had a conversation with a truck driver - I was talking about lorries - after a while he asked "What is a lorry?" Some words we use just don't register there - eg - Stand In Line rather than Queue.
OTOH, having one pair fixed makes it a lot easier to control when navigating a sloping car park.
Chris
Similarly, if you told him you lived in a semi, he might well have got the wrong impression.
Chris
Just needs a different driving technique. The trollies in CostCo (American company) have fixed rear wheels and to be honest I prefer them. Get a 4 wheel steer trolly with an iffy wheel or on a slope in the car park and they are difficult to control. Not so with the fixed rear wheels.
When this system was installed at my local Tesco one of the security staff said that those who took their trolleys home soon found the (unplanned) gap in the loop. Don't know if the gap is still there but it's a long time since I saw a stray trolley, and the old ones could be taken a mile or more from the store.
"Boo-ey" for buoy (UK pronunciation like "boy") is an interesting one. Following the American way, how on earth do they pronounce the allied words "buoyant" and "buoyancy" ?
Arfa
Zurich, Geneve, etc. Baggage claim to railway platform on one trolley. The Swiss understand public transport.
Boo-yunt and boo-yuncee.
I agree. Never have trouble with Costco trolleys....the one I used last week was brand new too!
Sounds more like two soap stars have formed a popular beat combo.
Owain
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