Wanzl shopping trolley

What it is

The Wanzl shopping trolley is the wheeled basket found in supermarkets, DIY stores and discounters across Europe and beyond. Its maker, Wanzl of Leipheim in Bavaria, is described by Monocle and Wikipedia as the world's largest manufacturer of shopping and luggage trolleys, producing between two and two and a half million shopping trolleys a year according to those sources.

How it works

The principle is a basket fixed onto a wheeled chassis, shaped so that empty trolleys slide into one another and can be stored in long rows. The 1951 Concentra patent covered a trolley with a fixed basket, a step on from American carts that carried loose baskets on a frame. Modern versions come in galvanised or coated steel and in plastic, with child seats, coin or token locks and castor wheels. Monocle reported that Wanzl makes almost every part in-house, including wheels with up to 40 separate components.

Why it stands out

Its origin story is pleasingly concrete. Rudolf Wanzl junior travelled to the United States, met Sylvan Goldman, the Oklahoma grocer who popularised the shopping cart, and on the flight back sketched his own, more manoeuvrable design. The company tells the story with the seat number: row 14, window seat on the left. Wanzl had already supplied 40 trolleys and 100 baskets to the first self-service shop in Hamburg in 1949. The design arrived just as West German retail switched to self-service, and it travelled with that model across Europe.

Where you meet it

In almost any large supermarket. Monocle named Ikea, Lidl and Tesco among customers. Roughly half of the trolleys were made in Leipheim and nearby Kirchheim at the time of that report, with further plants abroad. The company's luggage trolleys also turn up at airports and railway stations, from Frankfurt to London St Pancras.

Sources

• Wanzl Stories: Row 14, window seat on the left
• Wanzl: Company history
• Monocle: Wanzl, world's biggest trolley maker
• Wikipedia: Wanzl