Abstract: A method and a system for detecting and rewarding the returning of shopping carts to the supermarket collection points is provided. During shopping, a first signal A is generated. When a shopping cart is returned, a signal B is generated. These two signals A and B are correlated either in the supermarket or in an information device that the customer carries with him or her, in order to deliver a reward for returning the shopping cart. When the first signal A is generated, the customer or an information device carried with the customer is identified. Alternatively, the signal is provided to the customer at the supermarket checkout so that the customer himself/herself can take steps for the correlation of the signal A with the signal B that is still to be obtained.

Abstract: A shopping cart or transport container includes a combined hydrophobic or superhydrophobic and/or ion-releasing surface. The shopping cart or transport container therefore does not provide an environment that permits the survival of pathogens.

Abstract: A system and a method for detecting and rewarding the return of supermarket carts or luggage carts taken from a cart stand. Each cart is provided with a contactless, preferably optically identifiable, individual mark, by which the cart is identified when it is returned to a cart stand. In addition, the identifying mark on the cart changes when the cart is brought back to the cart stand, from an active state, in which the mark can be identified, to a passive state, in which the mark cannot be identified, or vice-versa. In addition to the presence of a returned cart, the invention enables the correct positioning of a cart in a row of nested carts to be identified in a contactless and automatic manner.

Abstract: A transport car with rollers, all of which are steerable, for which an activatable anti-theft protection is provided. With the anti-theft protection, two or more of the rollers may be fixed in a predetermined steering position whereby the angle which the rollers are fixed at relative to a longitudinal axis of the transport cart is different between the two or more rollers.

Abstract: A system and a method for detecting and rewarding the return of supermarket carts or luggage carts taken from a cart stand. Each cart is provided with a contactless, preferably optically identifiable, individual mark, by which the cart is identified when it is returned to a cart stand. In addition, the identifying mark on the cart changes when the cart is brought back to the cart stand, from an active state, in which the mark can be identified, to a passive state, in which the mark cannot be identified, or vice-versa. In addition to the presence of a returned cart, the invention enables the correct positioning of a cart in a row of nested carts to be identified in a contactless and automatic manner.

Abstract: A system for detecting and rewarding the return of shopping carts to collection points is provided. A signal corresponding to a dividend is generated as soon as a shopping cart is returned to a collection point. The signal is only generated when the shopping cart is returned correctly to a row of shopping carts. The correct return of the shopping carts is monitored by a digital image processing camera or with an optical signal transmitter which cooperates with evaluation units disposed on the shopping cart.

Abstract: A system for detecting and rewarding the return of shopping carts to collection points provided therefor in a supermarket. A signal corresponding to a dividend is generated as soon as a shopping cart is returned to a collection point. The signal is only generated when the shopping cart is returned correctly to a row of shopping carts. The correct return of the shopping cart is monitored by means of a digital image processing camera or with an optical signal transmitter which cooperates with evaluation units disposed on the shopping cart.

Abstract: A system for detecting and rewarding the use of a shopping cart in a supermarket. All shopping carts are provided with an optically identifiable individual identification and, at the same time in the supermarket, detection means are available for automatically and optically detecting this identification and thus for automatically and contactlessly detecting the presence of the shopping cart in the supermarket. The individual identifier of the shopping carts preferably is a bar code or a series of numbers and/or letters, and the detection device includes a digital image processing camera or a scanner. The reward for using a shopping cart can be issued in the form of an entry in a lottery and/or can be made dependent on the proper return of the shopping cart to a collection point.

Abstract: A method and a system for detecting and rewarding the returning of shopping carts to the supermarket collection points is provided. During shopping, a first signal A is generated. When a shopping cart is returned, a signal B is generated. These two signals A and B are correlated either in the supermarket or in an information device that the customer carries with him or her, in order to deliver a reward for returning the shopping cart. When the first signal A is generated, the customer or an information device carried with the customer is identified. Alternatively, the signal is provided to the customer at the supermarket checkout so that the customer himself/herself can take steps for the correlation of the signal A with the signal B that is still to be obtained.

Abstract: For supplying customers of a self-service market with product-specific information a plurality of items of product-specific information including identification codes of the electronic shelf labels provided at the corresponding products are communicated by emitter means in the entrance area of the self-service market to the detector/emitter means of the shopping cart pushed by the customer and stored therein. On the shopping cart being pushed into the zone of the electronic shelf labels, whose identification code is assigned a stored product-specific information, this product-specific information from the emitter/detector unit of the corresponding electronic shelf labels is activated in the corresponding detector/emitter means of the shopping cart pushed into the zone of the electronic shelf labels and informed to the customer by means of its information means.

Abstract: A transport cart which can be stacked in a column with other carts is equipped with a deposit lock for uncoupling it in return for a deposit token and for coupling it up again in exchange for returning the deposit token. For moving the cart, it is provided at its rear end with a handle bar extending transversely between lateral supporting arms with handle caps standing at either end. The token device housing is formed in one piece laterally directly on one side of one of the handle caps and is provided on its opposite side with a receptacle for the correspondingly shortened handle bar.

Abstract: Deposit locks for transport carts are in use in which the coupling member of one cart is lockable in the deposit lock of the next cart, and the deposit lock has a locking mechanism which upon insertion of a deposit token into the locking mechanism locks the token while releasing the cart and releases the token upon recoupling of the cart. To prevent misuse of these deposit locks, the deposit token is provided with an additional positioning member which forms an operative connection between the deposit token and the locking mechanism necessary for the functioning of the lock.

Abstract: A system shopping cart for use in multi-department self-service stores is shown and described. The cart includes a digital memory for storing information specific to a department. Information is transferred to the cart by infrared light transmission coming from transmitters located in each department. The cart includes a display which provides a visual message for the cart user, and also includes an infrared transmitter for transmitting information to a department infrared transceiver for the purpose of identifying cart location and time for the purpose of customer shopping pattern analysis.

Abstract: The invention is directed to an unloading system for shopping carts wherein a conveyor device is disposed in the entry area of a cash register or scanning apparatus, and acts on the products lying randomly in the shopping cart to subject them to a transporting motion in a defined unloading direction, whereby a side wall of the basket in this direction is to be opened.

Abstract: A transport cart with a coin-operated lock. A connection between the coin-operated lock and an associated carrier arm permits an automatic coin mechanism to be pivoted relative to the plane of insertion of a key about an axis of rotation parallel to the handle of the transport cart and is secured at various angles of inclination relative to the handle.

Abstract: A securing device (1) for carts having a chain (82) with a first end secured to a screw (7) mounted on a cart, a first key secured to a second end of the chain (82), a coin receptor for releasing and retaining an introduced coin (50, 51), and additional apparatus for coupling and uncoupling the cart to and from another parked cart. When a second key (8') secured to the other parked cart is introduced into the securing device (1) to couple and securely hold the cart to the other parked cart, a coin (50, 51) from the coin receptor of the cart is released and the cart can be uncoupled from the other parked cart by introducing a next coin (50, 51) into the coin receptor thereby releasing the second key (8') while the next coin (50, 51) is retained in the coin receptor.

Abstract: A safety device for connecting orderly positioned shopping carts to each other includes a token extractor comprising a control key device which is insertably-releasable from the shopping cart and carries an insert having a token-receiving slot. An encoding ring is positioned on the upper surface of the grip of the cart. A releasing member is resiliently suspended on the cart and serves for connecting one cart to a neighboring cart when the releasing member of one cart is inserted into the encoding ring of the neighboring shopping cart. The releasing element is provided with coding markings and can be inserted into the encoding ring of the neighboring shopping cart in a plurality of various positions corresponding to the markings on the releasing element whereby the shopping carts of one supermarket can be distinguished from the shopping carts of another supermarket located at the same shopping plaza.