By Cheryl Lim

AN INVENTION by a group of Temasek Polytechnic (TP) students to prevent trolley thefts has caught the attention of NTUC FairPrice, the biggest supermarket chain in Singapore with over 225 stores islandwide.

The contraption involves installing brakes on the trolleys, which will be activated the moment the trolleys go beyond the exit of the supermarkets.

When contacted about the invention, an NTUC FairPrice spokesman told my paper: "We lose over 70 trolleys a month to trolley thieves, so we take the issue of misplaced trolleys seriously. We are heartened that TP students are exploring ways to tackle this issue. We will study the idea and take into consideration factors that may affect its feasibility."

Two weeks ago, it was reported that supermarkets lose up to 100 trolleys each month. They are either stolen, go missing or are found abandoned.

For their final-year project, three students at TP's Temasek Engineering School - Mr Lee Guo Sheng, 19; Mr Wang Kai, 22; and Mr Lam Yan Feng, 21 - have installed brakes on the wheels of supermarket trolleys which are activated when they hit a hump placed at store exits.

If a trolley thief tries to remove a trolley forcibly by lifting it, the trolley would collapse inwards into a pile, rendering it immovable.

The team was inspired to tackle the problem of trolley theft after reading reports about the issue in the newspapers.

Mr Lee said: "It seems that trolley theft has been a serious problem for a long time. Supermarkets suffer huge losses every month. So, we decided to use our project to come up with an innovative solution."

Their lecturer and project supervisor, Ms Christina Ng, said: "I told them not to think of a solution that is too complicated, but instead something like a simple braking system that could be installed easily on an existing trolley, with minimal capital needed and no complicated electronic circuits, so that costs are kept low."

The prototype will be completed by September.

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