A Publix grocery store in Lutz, Florida, debuted a new kind of shopping cart aimed to give customers in wheelchairs a better shopping experience, according to a report from Fox 13 Tampa.
The carts could come to Orlando if they are needed because they are deployed based on special requests, said Dwaine Stevens, a Publix spokesman.
“Once the need has been identified for a specialty cart, we work with our customers to meet that need,” Stevens wrote in an email.
The cart design allows it to hook onto the front of a wheelchair so that it can be moved along with the wheelchair as opposed to someone attempting to push a cart and the wheelchair separately.
“This cart is a new design, and it’s a lot easier for our wheelchair customers to navigate with it,” store manager Kedrin Fraum told Fox 13.
One Florida mother, Tiffani Borders, posted several videos of her 9-year-old daughter Amaria using the new shopping carts.
“Publix gave my daughter the chance to grab just a little more independence! These attachable wheelchair accessible shopping carts are the best. Thanks Publix for including her and everyone else that this will help,” reads one of the posts on her Facebook page on Oct. 10.
Publix used its Facebook account to post to one of Borders’ video, “What an awesome video, Tiffani! Thank you so much for sharing this with us and both of you for shopping with us!”
According to Fox 13, the carts are gradually replacing older models across various Publix locations.
Read the report at Fox13Tampa.com.
