Shopping Cart Manufacturer Messes Up, Ships Unit With Good Wheel Alignment

“Another incoming customer was actually reaching for that cart when we snatched it away before it could victimize everyone all over again.”

Jerusalem, January 10 – Quality Assurance personnel at a local maker of supermarket paraphernalia scrambled today to address an emergency situation amid reports that multiple patrons of an establishment in Israel’s capital had accomplished their purchasing task without struggling to steer their conveyance through the store aisles without crashing into others, crashing into displays, or crashing into cars on the way back to their own vehicles in the parking lot, apparently because at least one such conveyance failed to pull to one side, get stuck, or otherwise impede smooth movement through the store.

A representative of S&S Pachter Metal Works acknowledged Tuesday that the company has launched a thorough review of its processes following indications today that a series of shoppers at the Osher Ad supermarket in Jerusalem’s Giv’at Shaul commercial and industrial zone found a shopping cart with proper wheel alignment. The Osher Ad branch took delivery of 150 carts from Pachter last week, a store spokeswoman disclosed. Store personnel reported late this morning that one customer appeared not to struggle with her cart, then again four other times over the course of the afternoon and evening. By 8 pm, the spokeswoman reported, two hours before closing time, personnel had managed to identify and remove from the circulation the problematic cart.

“Even before we isolated the dangerous unit, we had alerted the supplier,” recalled Assistant Manager Hashta Baagala. “They immediately sent a team to help us track down the rogue cart, which we managed to do by tracking the timing of the employee reports on it and cross-referencing with the automated self-checkout system that most shoppers now use – it requires them to scan a QR code on the carts they select at the beginning of their visit. That, combined with examination of security camera footage, allowed us to narrow down the possible culprits in a series of gradual sweeps. In the nick of time, too, because another incoming customer was actually reaching for that cart when we snatched it away before it could victimize everyone all over again.”

Pachter representative Meital Lurji reported that initial investigations have found that the most likely scenario for Quality Control procedures failing to prevent a properly-aligned cart from leaving the factory involves a combination of shoddy paperwork and recent high turnover in personnel. “That’s not a valid excuse, we know, but it appears to be the explanation,” she admitted. “Assuming that proves to be the cause, we will revamp our protocols to ensure that never again will any supermarket patron be able to avoid collisions, bruised ankles, or crushed toes.”

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