Corrals can also be used inside the store to offer customers easy access to carts

Shopping Cart Corrals a Useful Tool for Merchants and Customers

For retail stores, fabricated metal cart corrals are the ideal way to organize shopping carts within the store and in the parking lot. Strategically placed around the lot, shopping cart corrals keep carts stationary to prevent them from rolling into parked cars and pedestrians while protecting the store's investment in the carts. Corrals can also be used inside the store to offer customers easy access to carts.

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Shopping Cart Corral Design

Often made of galvanized steel, stainless steel or rust-resistant anodized aluminum, cart corrals are built to be durable and weather resistant, whether left in their natural state or painted, powder coated or plastic coated. The sides are fitted with square, diamond or custom-designed grillwork that helps keep the carts in line. The corrals may have multiple entry points to keep carts in lanes to make it easier to maximize the use of space, and they may even have bidirectional access points.

Many corrals are open and topped with a sign box for the store name, advertising message or other information. Closed-top corrals, which feature cable, barrel, hip or flat roofs, offer additional advertising space with front, side, and back banner signs and large wall-panel advertising boxes. Statistics show that customers are 55% more likely to use a covered corral versus an uncovered one, so adding a roof not only offers better protection for carts, but increases the likelihood of usage.

In an effort to make cart corrals even more useful, some have add-on trash cans to encourage proper waste disposal or bumpers that prevent damage to vehicles, the corral and the carts.

How Cart Corrals are Made

Shopping cart corrals are constructed of metal tubing, bars, and, in the case of covered corrals, sheets by companies that specialize in metal fabrication. Typically, tubes of metal are cut to a desired length and bent into the proper shape with CNC control tube benders. Since a cart corral typically has a long expanse of straight tubing as well as multiple bends, many machines can accommodate lengths of tubing up to 27 feet or more. Operators oversee the process with touchscreen control to assure precision bending into round, square, rectangular and oval shapes.

Once the bent tubes are ready, sections of the corral are created by welding tubes or bars together. Depending on customer requirements, the fabrication shop might also perform additional services such as flattening, drilling, notching, slotting, punching, threading and more. The sections of tubing are then painted, plated, or coated for appearance, company branding and weather resistance.

When complete, the metal fabrication company ships the cart corral to the customer in large, preassembled sections. The goal is to provide the customer with a product that requires minimal assembly onsite, yet is easy to repair with replacement parts. Many corrals are physically attached to the parking lot surface or floor with long lag bolts set in cement, while other systems are weighted to withstand high winds without being fastened down.

Professional Design and Fabrication

Attractive, serviceable shopping cart corrals start with excellent design and creation by a skilled metal fabricating shop. Most shops with experience in this area can offer you a variety of standard open and closed designs, but some will work to provide custom configurations as well to create the perfect cart corrals for your business.

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