Woolworths is introducing a new size for its iconic trolleys: Here's what's changing

Woolworths has unveiled a new fleet of larger trolleys at select locations, as part of their transition from wire to recycled plastic trolleys across the country.

The new trolleys were spotted by a Woolies insider who shared their discovery on Reddit's 'Woolworths' thread.

"New large trolleys getting rolled out?" they posted, alongside photos of the trolley change.

"Had 200 of these trolleys delivered this morning and haven't heard/seen them mentioned elsewhere.

"Size comparison to the existing large plastic trolleys in the 2nd pic."

A Woolies worker replied: "240 litre capacity compared to 190L believe (from memory, don't call me out)."

"I saw those, they have the wheelbase of a Ford Falcon wagon," another added.

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Another Woolies worker commented that their fleet of trolleys is still metal.

"Wish my store had plastic, still pushing tons of metal," they replied.

Another commented: "We were the first store with the plastic trolleys. They've been lasting fine. I love the little ones.

"Don't like the newer larger ones though. When full they must be a bugger to go around corners."

"Who can afford to fill them?" one Redditor commented.

"And I can't even afford to fill the small one," another added.

One Woolies customer joked: "In this economy? I'm surprised they haven't released a smaller basket."

"How on earth are larger trolleys going to fit down the aisle with all the huge on line order carts clogging them?" said another.

A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed the change to nine.com.au.

"In addition to our well-known plastic baskets, we've been doing a large-scale trial of green plastic trolleys for a while now at selected stores across the country," they said.

"They're made in Australia, from 99 per cent recycled milk bottles, giving a second life to the bottles and also reducing the use of new materials needed to manufacture the trolleys.

"Customer feedback has been positive, with many shoppers noting that they're easier to manoeuvre thanks to their lighter weight.

"We've designed different sized versions of these trolleys to help customers with different types of shops.

"Our smallest 90-litre version is great for people doing smaller shops, and slides into our self-service checkout spaces, while our 180-litre version is designed for bigger shops. Recently, we've rolled out an even bigger 215-litre version to just over 50 stores where customers are doing particularly large shops, such as regional families who might travel into town only once every one or two weeks."

Woolworths began rolling out their new trolleys in 2022, in what has been deemed one of the biggest supermarket changes in decades.

Currently, plastic trolleys make up just under 50 per cent of Woolworths' total trolley fleet. At their end of life, they can be recycled.

Metal trolleys comprise just over 50 per cent and, once they're ready to be retired, they can also be recycled.

The new trolley rollout followed the release of a larger, single-handle baskets at both Coles and Woolies.

Woolworths stopped short of replacing all of their smaller shopping baskets with the new design, as Coles has done.

Instead, they have maintained their previous smaller baskets alongside the new, larger ones.

This means there are now two basket sizes and with this latest trolley change, three trolley sizes, for customers to choose from.

A spokesperson for the supermarket confirmed not all customers are happy with the new single-handle larger basket design, telling nine.com.au at the time: "We've taken customer feedback on board and every store has a combination of the single and double handled baskets whilst we look to future solutions."

Woolworth's Scan&Go trolleys are a fourth option for customers at select locations. This technology allows shoppers to scan items as they go, and pay at one of the designated Scan&Go checkouts.

Woolworth's Scan&Go technology began rolling out to select locations in August 2024 and it was understood if all went well, it would continue to roll out to more locations.

While the initial rollout was met with excitement, Woolworths hasn't announced any plans to expand Scan&Go beyond current locations.

Of course it goes without saying that Woolies shoppers who choose the larger trolleys for their weekly shop are likely to spend more.

Consumer Psychologist and founder of Thinkerbell, Adam Ferrier, previously explained this concept when the new baskets were rolled out.

"The smaller the basket the less you'll buy," adding that we "look for cues like a full basket to encourage us to stop and check out".

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