It’s a constant problem when you’re out shopping: you have piles of heavy food, a baby in the trolley and an uneven car park full of heavy, expensive 4x4s.
It sounds like a recipe for disaster, either due to a runaway trolley complete with baby in it, or at the very least, a load of food clanking into a Range Rover just after you’ve clipped the tot into their car seat and your back is turned.
This month, though, I discovered that many supermarket trolleys have a hidden feature for just this scenario: a foot brake button.
In several Leeds branches of Asda, trolleys are fitted with a metal switch on the right hand side that you can press with your foot – a button which instantly locks the trolley into place, no matter how uneven the surface, or how much heavy food you have in the trolley (in my case, 72 cans of Pepsi Max. It’s my vice, okay).
Normally, I have to push the trolley up against the car, risking my paintwork, and quickly whip my son out of the seat and into his car seat, while somehow keeping the trolley from rolling off into a parked car. But after trying this juggling act for months on end, I found the little switch underfoot. Just press it, and the trolley cannot move. Once the shopping’s done, simply flick it back up and the trolley’s mobile again.
Now I’ve found it in Asda, I’m noticing it’s been everywhere all along. The same switch is on some Morrisons branches’ trolleys too. Not everywhere though, it seems quite hit and miss which branches have these secret buttons and which don’t.
A woman in Australia recently had a similar mundane revelation. She posted a video on TikTok in which she said: “I was 26 years old when I realised Woolworths trolleys have a brake! Please tell me I’m not alone!” Mikhaela said in her video.
According to 7News, in Australia the trolleys most likely to have the secret brake lock button are those found in sloping car parks.
TikTok users say that even more supermarket stores should have them, saying trolley brakes are a great idea.
“Only some shops have them, not all. But I think all trolleys should have them,” said one comment.