Shopping cart conveyor with front wheel alignment and turning system

An inclined tow conveyor for moving a shopping cart between an upper floor and a lower floor, the shopping cart including a pair of spaced front wheels and a pair of spaced rear wheels, the inclined conveyor comprising:

• a pair of spaced front wheel tracks extending between a loading end and an unloading end of the inclined conveyor, each of the front wheel tracks positioned to receive one of the front wheels of the shopping cart;
• a pair of spaced rear wheel tracks extending between the loading end and the unloading end of the conveyor, each of the rear wheel tracks positioned to receive one of the rear wheels of the shopping cart, wherein the front wheel tracks and the rear wheel tracks are inclined and extend from the lower floor to the upper floor to guide the movement of the cart therebetween;
• a driven continuous conveyor belt positioned between the pair of front wheel tracks, the continuous conveyor belt including a series of spaced drive lugs engageable with a cross bar on the shopping cart to move the shopping cart along the front wheel tracks and the rear wheel tracks between the upper floor and the lower floor;
• and
• a cart travel correction device positioned above the conveyor belt for maintaining proper engagement between the shopping cart cross bar and a side edge of one of the drive lugs on the conveyor belt so that the front wheels continue to engage the front wheel tracks.

A combination inclined conveyor and shopping cart for moving the shopping cart between an upper floor and a lower floor, the combination comprising:

• a shopping cart having a pair of spaced swivelly mounted front wheels and a pair of spaced, fixed rear wheels;
• an engagement member extending beneath the shopping cart and positioned between the pair of front wheels;
• a driven continuous conveyor belt extending along the length of the inclined conveyor between a loading end and an unloading end of the inclined conveyor, the conveyor belt including a plurality of spaced drive lugs that contact the engagement member formed on a shopping cart such that movement of the conveyor belt in a desired direction causes the drive lugs to contact the engagement member on each shopping cart to move the shopping cart in the desired direction;
• a front wheel alignment and turning system mounted for rotating at least one of the front wheels 180 degrees to place both front wheels in a common aligned position before the engagement member contacts the drive lug on the conveyor belt;
• and
• a cart travel correction device positioned above the conveyor belt for maintaining proper engagement between the engagement member and a side edge of one of the drive lugs on the conveyor belt.