For those folks who have ever by-passed the stack of shopping carts on the way into the store thinking they only need a few things, and then have found themselves playing a juggling game trying to carry everything – this day is for you!
Shopping Cart Day is a light-hearted little opportunity to show some appreciation for the convenience that shopping carts bring to the lives of shoppers and consumers each and every day.
Shopping Cart Day Timeline
Sylvan Goldman Introduces the First Shopping Cart
Oklahoma supermarket owner Sylvan Goldman unveils the first wheeled, folding shopping cart at his Humpty Dumpty stores to help customers carry more groceries than handheld baskets allowed.
Goldman Receives Patent for Nested Shopping Cart Design
Sylvan Goldman is granted a U.S. patent for his improved, stackable shopping cart, formalizing the basic frame-and-basket design that would become standard in supermarkets.
Orla Watson Develops the True Nesting “Telescope” Cart
Kansas City inventor Orla E. Watson designs a new “telescope” shopping cart whose baskets slide into one another, allowing carts to nest compactly in lines and reducing storage space.
Watson’s Telescoping Cart Patent Filed
Orla Watson files his key U.S. patent for the telescoping shopping cart, securing commercial adoption of the nesting system that becomes the norm in grocery and big-box retailers.
Child Seats and Seat Belts Become Common in Carts
Supermarkets increasingly add built-in child seating and later simple safety belts to shopping carts, reflecting growing concern over child safety during routine grocery trips.
Plastic-Frame Shopping Carts Spread in Supermarkets
Retailers begin replacing all-metal carts with lighter plastic-basket or plastic-frame models that resist rust, protect car finishes, and accept branding and color customization.
Smart and Self-Scanning Carts Emerge
Stores and tech companies experiment with barcode scanners, weight sensors, and later RFID in shopping carts, letting customers scan items as they go and speeding checkout.
How to Celebrate Shopping Cart Day
Those who enjoy shopping or who simply appreciate the innovation of convenient tools can enjoy Shopping Cart Day with some of these interesting ideas:
Use a Shopping Cart
Certainly one of the most obvious ways that Shopping Cart Day can be celebrated would be to head on over to a big box store and do some shopping!
Sometimes referred to as a buggy (in the southern US), carriage (in New England) or a trolley (in Britain or Australia), whatever they are called, be sure to grab one of these on the way into the store.
But be forewarned that people who use a shopping cart to carry their items may be more likely to make impulse buys than those who carry a smaller basket.
So if that shopping list is small, or impulse purchases are particularly tempting, be sure to make good shopping decisions – no matter how big the cart is!
Listen to a Shopping Cart Playlist
Who knew there were so many songs about shopping carts by many different artists?!
In honor of Shopping Cart Day, perhaps it would be fun to cobble together a soundtrack or playlist that can be blasted at home or at work (through headphones, of course) to get in the mood of the day’s theme.
To get started making a playlist, check out some of these songs by artists who apparently love carts and shopping enough to write songs about them:
- Shopping Carts by J. Monty (2019)
- Lost in the Supermarket by The Clash (1979)
- Shopping Trolley by Beth Orton (2006)
- Shopping Bags by De La Soul (2004)
Keep a Coin Handy
Those who live in the US and shop at discount stores like Aldi or Lidl may have found that a quarter or a token is required to fetch a cart.
But don’t worry, it’s just a rental fee and the quarter can be retrieved when the cart is returned. This is a way that some shops keep carts under control, prevent shopping cart accidents with vehicles in the parking lot and keep their costs down.
This idea actually hails from Europe where a large number of stores use this scheme to keep people from stealing their carts.
In addition, this type of plan encourages honest customers to put the carts back where they belong, making them more easily available for other customers to use.
History of Shopping Cart Day
Shopping carts made their introduction into the shopping world on June 4, 1937. The invention came from Sylvan Goldman, the owner of the Humpty Dumpty chain of supermarkets in Oklahoma.
Goldman realized that his customers needed a better way to carry their groceries as their hand held baskets were getting full. Rather than have them leave the store when the baskets were full, Goldman created a foldable cart on wheels so customers would stay in the store longer.
Although the shopping cart was originally not well-received, they eventually grew in popularity and improved designs showed up. Adding a child seat to the cart was useful for parents, and then the telescoping design helped solve a storage problem. Since the 1960s, when seatbelts were added to the child seat, the design of the shopping cart has not really changed much.
Exchanging heavy metal for lighter-weight plastic has been part of the evolution of the shopping cart for some stores in more recent decades. Some companies have also made the shopping carts wider so they can seat two children, or even a baby carrier.
While for many years the items went into the shopping cart, then had to come out to be scanned by the clerk and then placed in bags and back into the cart, the system has changed a bit.
Many grocery stores and big box supermarket chains have made it possible for shoppers to grab a scanner on their way into the store, scan and bag items as they go, and then pay at the front of the store before leaving.
It’s an even more convenient way to use the shopping cart that the original inventor probably never would have imagined!
Shopping Cart Day is here to show some love and appreciation for this modern design that allows people to get a ton of shopping done in an efficient manner, wheel it right out to their cars and drive it on home.
Facts About Shopping Cart Day
Early Shopping Carts Faced Surprising Customer Resistance
When Sylvan Goldman introduced one of the first modern shopping carts in 1937, many shoppers refused to use them.
Men thought the carts made them look weak, and women said they resembled baby buggies, which they already pushed at home.
Goldman reportedly hired male and female models, as well as older people, to walk around his store using the carts to normalize the idea and encourage other customers to follow suit.
The Telescoping “Nestable” Cart Solved a Major Storage Problem
The familiar design where carts roll inside one another was not part of the original shopping cart concept. In 1949, inventor Orla Watson patented the “telescoping” or “nesting” cart, which allowed multiple carts to slide into a compact line.
This design drastically reduced the floor space needed for storage and made it possible for large self-service supermarkets to offer many more carts without crowding their entrances.
Coin-Deposit Carts Aim to Cut Theft and Parking Lot Clutter
The coin or token system used at many European supermarkets and at chains like Aldi is intended to change shopper behavior more than to collect revenue.
By requiring a small deposit, stores encourage customers to return carts to a central rack in order to get their coins back, which reduces labor for retrieving stray carts, limits damage to vehicles in parking lots, and helps cut down on cart theft and abandonment in surrounding neighborhoods.
Abandoned Shopping Carts Have Become an Urban Management Issue
In many cities, stolen or abandoned shopping carts accumulate along streets, in parks, or near homeless encampments, and local governments spend significant sums each year rounding them up.
For example, a 2018 report from the city of Phoenix estimated that thousands of stray carts were collected annually, prompting ordinances that fine retailers who fail to control their carts and encouraging the adoption of tracking or wheel-lock technologies to keep them on store property.
Child Injuries in Shopping Carts Led to Stronger Safety Guidance
Seemingly harmless rides in the front seat of a shopping cart have caused a steady stream of emergency room visits.
A study published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics found that an estimated 24,000 children under age 15 in the United States were treated each year for cart-related injuries, most often from falls or cart tip-overs.
In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises seating only small children in the designated child area, always using the safety belt, and never allowing kids to stand or ride on the sides or underneath.
Larger Carts Can Quietly Increase How Much Shoppers Buy
Retailers have learned that the size and design of a shopping cart can nudge customers toward buying more.
Experiments cited by consumer researchers have shown that when cart capacity is increased, average spending often rises as well, partly because a half-full large cart does not feel as “finished” as a full small one.
By subtly altering perceptions of quantity and space, cart dimensions become a psychological tool, not just a practical one.
Anti-Theft Wheels and Smart Tech Try to Keep Carts On-Site
To combat theft and abandonment, many retailers now use electronic wheel-lock systems that stop a cart when it crosses a buried perimeter wire near the edge of the parking lot.
Some newer carts incorporate radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags or GPS-enabled tracking so stores can locate missing carts and analyze how often and where they are used. These technologies turn an everyday object into part of a wider network of loss-prevention and operational data.
