Shopping carts become shocking carts

Some folks are calling it "attack of the shopping carts" at Walmart.

Millions of Americans shop at Walmart and for most of them its a pleasant experience. A growing number of shoppers have been shocked during a recent Walmart visit.

 We don't mean shocked as in surprised, the problem is static electricity.

Gerry Palumbo was shopping for a gift at her local Walmart when she felt it. "I thought it was a barb, a sharp piece of metal on the cart."

Palumbo checked the cart handle and says it was perfectly smooth. Then, it happened a second time, and a third time.

"No matter where I held the cart, I was getting shocked," Palumbo said.

A fluke?

Wearing a ballcap and pullover so not to draw attention, I rolled a cart though the store, touching shelves, but nothing happened to me.

When I asked our photographer, Greg Singleton, to do the same thing, he had a very different - and very shocking result.

"Got a shock!   Got a shock.  Got a shock right there," Singleton told us.

Greg pushed the cart again, touched a second metal display, and was shocked a second time. Then he was shocked a third time.

Gerry says store employees knew all about it.

"Even the cashier said it happens to her all the time. and the assistant manager said it happens all the time and there's nothing they can do."

A google search pulls up dozens of complaints about this.
    
Meantime,  the website "The Consumerist," a division of Consumer Reports Magazine,  believes it has to do with Walmart's new vinyl wood flooring, and metal carts building up static.

The shoes you wear determine if you get a shock.
    
A walmart spokeswoman tells me it is aware of this happening to some customers, and says it addresses the issue on a store by store basis.

One solution, according to The Consumerist, a grounding wire on the bottom of carts.
    
Gerry Palumbo says until her Walmart grounds the carts, she'll visit another Walmart that doesn't seem to have the problem.

"It's painful to shop.  They're not shopping carts, they're shocking carts," she said.

If you have an issue like this at any store, go to the store manager before you leave and forget. They may not be aware shoppers are having a problem.