By Mary Dodge Allen
Shopping carts... have you ever thought about how this simple invention revolutionized the chore of shopping?
Most of us take shopping carts for granted as we cruise up and down store aisles, filling them with items we need, along with additional items we find on sale - deals too good to pass up.
But what if there were only hand-held bags or baskets available to hold your items as you shopped? That's how shopping was done before the mid-1930's.
In the early days of shopping, individual stores - bakers, butchers, dry goods, produce - were staffed with clerks who stood behind a counter and retrieved items for customers - who brought their own bags or baskets to carry home their purchases.
Sylvan Goldman - Shopping Cart Inventor
After WWI, the grocery business began expanding, with the opening of "supermarkets" that housed many departments - baked goods, meats, dry goods, produce - under one roof. These larger stores introduced the self-service concept of shopping.
At this time, Oklahoma native Sylvan Goldman was working in California as a grocery wholesaler. He was impressed with the self-service supermarkets that began opening up, but he saw a problem. Although many items were now available, the continued use of bags and baskets limited the number of items shoppers would buy and carry home. Shoppers didn't want to overfill them and carry around the extra weight.
In 1920, Sylvan and his brother Alfred established the Humpty Dumpty chain of supermarkets in their home state of Oklahoma. Sylvan Goldman and Fred Young - an employee and mechanic - began tinkering with the idea of a wheeled cart. Their first cart design consisted of two wire baskets placed on the frame of a metal folding chair, with wheeled castors on its legs.
The Debut that Flopped... at First
On June 4, 1937, Sylvan Goldman placed an advertisement in the Oklahoma City Times. He introduced his shopping carts with this intriguing question:
"Can you imagine winding your way through a spacious food market without having to carry a cumbersome shopping basket on your arm?"
At first, shoppers resisted this new concept. Women compared the carts to wheeled baby carriages, and one woman told Goldman, "I've pushed my last baby."
Male shoppers also saw the carts as too feminine, not something a 'manly' shopper would use.
Goldman's Brilliant Marketing Idea
Not one to be discouraged, Goldman decided to hire actors, both men and women, to walk around his store, using the carts to shop. When customers saw these attractive people using the carts, they began using them, too. In a matter of weeks, shopping carts were being used in all of Goldman's stores.
In September 1937, Goldman introduced his cart at the first Super Market Convention. He also produced a promotional film for supermarket managers across the country. His carts caught on quickly, and Goldman's Folding Carrier Company became the country's largest shopping cart manufacturer.
A 'double-decker' version of Goldman's shopping cart even appeared on the August 31, 1940 cover of the Saturday Evening Post magazine:
An Innovative Competitor
In 1946, Orla Eugene Watson, a Kansas City inventor, devised a shopping cart with two innovative changes:
1 - A swinging rear gate that allowed carts to nest inside each other, saving valuable retail floor space.
2 - A unified frame and basket, which made the carts permanently stable (unlike Goldman's carts, which required assembly before every use.)
The following year, Goldman added Watson's innovations to his cart design and applied for a patent. A legal battle followed, with Watson alleging patent infringement. Both competitors finally agreed to a satisfactory out-of-court settlement in 1949.
Shopping Carts, A Cultural Icon
Humans have been using wheeled carts throughout history. Sylvan Goldman's invention of the shopping cart was the right idea at the right time. The shopping landscape was quickly changing. Supermarkets were providing a large amount of goods under one roof, and the the growing use of cars made bulk shopping possible. What was lacking was an efficient tool to make it all work - the shopping cart.
"The wonderful thing about food is that everyone uses it, and they only use it once."
- Sylvan Goldman
Today, nearly 25 million shopping carts are being used in all types of retail stores throughout the U.S. That's about one cart for every 13 Americans.
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Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers.
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