Thursday, February 10, 2011

Shopping Carts

Fascinating facts about the invention of the Shopping Cart by Sylvan Goldman in 1937. We love to put our groceries in a shopping cart, we like the little ones for light shopping and was glad when it came about. How about those carts for mom to push the kids in and shop at the same time, they come in the form of a car to those cute animals.

One night, in 1936. Goldman sat in his office wondering how customers might move more groceries. He stared idly at a wooden folding chair. Put a basket on the seat, wheels on the legs. Wait a minute, Goldman and a mechanic, Fred Young, began tinkering. Their first shopping cart was a metal frame that held two wire baskets. Since they were inspired by the folding chair, Goldman called his carts, "folding basket carriers."

In 1937 Goldman formed the Folding Carrier Basket Company to make shopping carts.
March 12, 1938 a U.S. Patent was issued to Sylvan Goldman for the shopping cart.1946 Orla E, Watson of Kansas City, MO devised a plan for a telescoping shopping cart.
1947 designers added a child's seat to the cart.

The first shopping carts were put into service by grocery store owner Sylvan Goldman in 1937. Sylvan Goldman was born in 1898, he grew up in the new Oklahoma Territory and went into wholesale produce business with his brother. Goldman's concept was simple, make shopping easier for the customers and they'll visit the store more frequently and buy more.

By 1946 shopping carts found such a firm place in American life as to grace the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Supermarkets were redesigned to accommodate them, checkout counter design and the layout of aisles changed. Carts have changed over the years, they became larger to hold more merchandise, enabling more sales, and new carts to hold kids and grocery's. What would we do without them, shopping carts hasn't much over the years but the next generation of carts is still evolving with even bigger upper and lower baskets.

Don't you just hate it when you get a cart with a bad wheel that seem to thump , thump, and makes some type of noise or seems to want to go sideways and take out a customer, ha, ha.





6 comments:

Linda said...

Interesting facts as always, Margaret. And yes, I always seem to get those carts at Walmart that go "thump, thump, thump" - hate that. My Dad uses shopping carts from the parking lot to the store, as a walker/support for him with his shaky legs. :)
Have a nice weekend,
Linda

Kay said...

We are notorious for being the ones who end up with the noisy, wobbly wheel. One thing shopping carts did for sure (as he intended) was enabled us to buy a whole lot more groceries. :-)

Anonymous said...

what a great post Margaret. I sure would like to get my hands on an early shopping cart. Would be fun to have one in a kitchen. I am not a fan of those kiddie carts made to look like cars. They take up way too much room in the tiny aisle at our grocery stores. We forget the daily things that we use that make our lives so much easier.

Merle said...

Hi Margaret ~~ The old shopping trolley - what would we do without them. I manage to fill one once a fortnight. And that is due tomorrow - Tuesday. Thank you for your visit and glad you liked all my tall girls and me in photo, and glad you enjoyed the jokes. Enjoy the rest of the week my friend
Take care, Love, Merle.

caspersmom said...

This was really interesting. Sometimes we just don't think about things we take for granted and how they came about. Guess you can say the shopping carts is as old as I am. LOL

Skylight Contractors Clovis said...

Hello matte great blog post

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