POLYMER
Basket

Amigo continues to pave innovation with industry first polymer basket

A family owned, Michigan manufacturer, Amigo Mobility has set the pace of innovation in the motorized shopping cart industry since 1970. What began as a continuation of the personal mobility aids Al Thieme was manufacturing, the motorized shopping cart began sales in grocery outlets. Now serving the top 8/10 retailers in the U.S., Amigo is excited to offer a new polymer basket option that will add a fresh new take to the motorized shopper as well as help meet environmental goals of Amigo and its customers.

Until now, a wire basket has been used by Amigo and other motorized cart manufacturers. The wire material has been a dependable asset of the shopper as it holds grocery items with ease and can withstand small, accidental collisions with its strong structure. The polymer material creates an ideal flexibility that is not only durable and dependable but allows for forgiveness against store fixtures with a little extra give.

“The idea of using plastic for a basket is nothing new for most applications. Plastic hand baskets and more recently plastic shopping carts are starting to be more present in stores; the next logical step was to use it on Amigos. The difference between those items and the new Amigo basket is the nature of the construction. Current baskets in grocery stores are quite rigid, the Amigo basket is designed to be somewhat flexible. This makes it more fixture friendly for stores and the flexibility makes it less susceptible to breaking when hit.”

– Jeremiah Schultz Mechanical Engineer

Since the basket is using a combination of new material and up to 10% recycled material, Amigo can maintain the mechanical properties needed while meeting the company goal of using recycled material. At the end of the basket’s life cycle, it can then be recycled and possibly have a second life in a new basket.