Goldman ran a grocery store chain named Humpty Dumpty, and he detected that shoppers fought with all the"hand carry" shopping baskets.
"They had a tendency to stop shopping if the baskets became too full or too heavy," said Goldman at a quotation cited in his obituary in The New York Times (November 27, 1984).
Self-service grocery shops were created in the 1920s. The very first to implement a self explanatory system was Clarence Saunders's Piggly Wiggly chain in 1916. Other stores followed, including Humpty Dumpty shops in Oklahoma.
Making the First Shopping Cart
Goldman's concept started with the idea of stacking two hand-carry baskets on a frame on wheels. He gained the help of a carpenter and a maintenance man, and the three guys used a folding seat for the simple model where the Metal Shopping Carts was constructed.
Buying cartOne basket has been positioned on top of the frame. The next basket was set lower down and in a situation where shoppers may easily place purchases in both baskets. Wheels and a handle were added when they were satisfied.
Since Supermarket Trolley Manufacturer perfected their creation, they invented a way for folding the cart with a single basket nesting in another when folded. This made it more streamlined for grocers to keep these carts when not in use.
Surprisingly, these carts met with resistance. Women felt they put their time in pushing baby carriages so that they didn't want to push a grocery cart. Men felt they personally were"too manly" to push a cart when they could easily take a hand basket.
Goldman mentioned these issues and took a three-pronged method of beating them:
He ran ads that showed a tired-looking woman struggling with an overloaded hand basket while clutching a handbag. The advertisement read"No more of the at your regular stores."
He hired good-looking men and women to"shop" the stores, forcing carts.
Eventually , he paid an employee to do nothing but stand in the front door to greet customers and offer them a cart. When they refused, she'd gesture to the"version shoppers" and note that everybody else was using them.
From the 1940s, shopping carts were so popular that as new grocery stores were constructed, they had been made with more aisles to accommodate the carts.
