The Shopping Cart – An Oklahoma Original
By Andy Lee
Most Americans have no idea who Sylvan Goldman was, but nearly every one of us has used his invention. The first shopping cart was invented in 1937 by Sylvan Goldman, a grocer from Oklahoma City. Goldman was inspired to create the cart after watching his customers struggle to carry their groceries around the store. He realized that a wheeled cart would make shopping much easier and more efficient.
Goldman owned the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain based in Oklahoma City at the time he invented the shopping cart and his stores became their proving ground. Nearly 90 years later the carts are ubiquitous at stores of all kinds across the world. Even when you buy something online, it’s added to a cart that often has Goldman’s invention as the symbol.
Goldman’s first shopping cart was made of metal and had two baskets. It was designed to be easy to assemble and disassemble, so that customers could take it with them when they were finished shopping. Goldman called his invention the “folding basket carrier.”
The folding basket carrier was an immediate success. Customers loved the convenience of being able to wheel their groceries around the store, and Goldman’s grocery store saw a significant increase in sales. Other grocers soon began to adopt the folding basket carrier, and it quickly became a standard feature of grocery stores all over the world.
Today, there are many different types of shopping carts available. Some are made of metal, while others are made of plastic. Some have two baskets, while others have four. Some have wheels that are fixed in place, while others have wheels that can be turned. But no matter what their design, all shopping carts have one thing in common: they make grocery shopping easier and more convenient.
Sylvan Goldman’s invention of the shopping cart was a major innovation in the retail industry. It made shopping more efficient and enjoyable for customers, and it helped to boost sales for grocers. The shopping cart is now an essential part of grocery shopping, and it is hard to imagine a world without it.
I was thinking about... 