Plastic carts can't stand Ohio weather

Even here in the polymer valley, plastic products sometimes can't win the battle against other materials. The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal has a story today on how local grocery chain Acme Fresh Market Inc. is ending a 4-year experiment with plastic shopping carts and going back to metal. President Steve Albrecht told the newspaper: "In the winters, they get so cold and the plastic gets brittle. We've had a number of them crack and break and the wheels don't hold up. The ice with the salt that we have in the parking lot, that corroded some of the wheels." He added: "Our customers did like them very much, but they just weren't able to hold up." Like everything else that can't stand Ohio winters, the plastic carts are moving South -- but not to Florida or Myrtle Beach. The best of the carts have been shipped to the Acme store in North Canton, Ohio, where they'll spend the next couple of years, presumably golfing every Wednesday and enjoying early-bird-dinner specials on Friday nights. Don't plastic shopping cart makers offer a cart that can stand up to Ohio weather?