I find myself constantly nagged by questions of all sorts, which is why I love Wikipedia so much. Tonight I went to Walmart, got a cart, and wondered, "When did people start using shopping carts? Were they always so big? What do shopping carts say about our society?" So I looked it up. Here's what I learned:
- The first shopping cart was invented by Sylvan Goldman, owner of the Piggly-Wiggly in Oklahoma City in 1937.
- They advertised the invention as part of a new “No Basket Carrying Plan.”
- The invention did not catch on immediately. Men found them effeminate; women found them suggestive of a baby carriage. "I've pushed my last baby buggy," offended women informed him. After hiring several male and female models to push his new invention around his store and demonstrate their utility, as well as greeters to explain their use, shopping carts became extremely popular and Goldman became a multimillionaire.
- The basket size of the shopping cart increased as stores have realized that their customers purchased more as its size increased.
- Shopping carts have been ranked third on the list for worst public items to touch. This is probably due to the fact that most shopping carts are used by many different people and that the seat where babies sit on with one customer may be used for fruit and raw meat by another. (I think next time I shop I may have to do a Niles Crane or Adrian Monk move and disinfect the entire cart!)
Check out the entire article on shopping carts--in case you have any burning questions of your own.
Also, there's an intriguing website about a classification system for stray shopping carts called The Stray Shopping Cart Project. You'll never look at a stray shopping cart the same way again.
Also, there's an intriguing website about a classification system for stray shopping carts called The Stray Shopping Cart Project. You'll never look at a stray shopping cart the same way again.
4 comments:
Very interesting info! I never thought about people putting raw meat and fruits in the baby seat. Now I'm going to be really paranoid since I'm somewhat of a germ freak. I think I'm going to start disinfecting the whole cart too!
Now I realized why at Stater Bros they have disinfecting cart wipes for customers to use for free. Thanks Shelley for this overwhelming info!
What did we ever do without the internet and wikipedia? Bought a thousand dollar set of encyclopedias I guess. Do you remember that Friends episode when Joey got the "V" encyclopedia only? Very funny episode.
I have several thoughts on this blog:
1. Your picture threw me way off. I was expecting a commentary on why people steal and abandon carts.
2. They should make a new poster to go along with that Kindergarten one titled "All I Need to Know About Life I learned from Wikipedia."
3. I remember a time when my enterprising brother Christopher was throwing around the idea of starting his own cart-collecting business.
4. I never worry about leaving the cart anywhere I want to in the parking lot after shopping because I was a courtesy clerk in high school and had to collect those stupid things myself for an hour at a time in some pretty hot weather and by golly if I had to do it then those kids can do it, too!!!!
5. I remember when I was younger and we went to Vancouver, B.C. and you had to put a couple quarters into the cart at the grocery store to be able to use it. You didn't get your quarters back unless you returned the cart to the cart collection area. Pretty smart, huh? I wonder why that's never caught on here.
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