Food Network Magazine - (09)September 2020

2000

The McCue Bean cart, a toy car with a

basket attached, rolls into stores. The cart

serves a dual purpose: keeping kids safe

(and close to the ground) and entertaining

them so their parents spend more.

1916

Piggly Wiggly, America’s first self-service

grocery store, opens in Memphis, with

wicker baskets for customers to carry.

To lure shoppers who were used to clerk

service, founder Clarence Saunders gives

out flowers and balloons and hires a band.

1936

After noticing that shoppers left when their

baskets were full, Piggly Wiggly franchise

owner Sylvan Goldman invents a cart with two

removable baskets on a rolling frame. Customers

are wary of the carts, so Goldman hires actors

to wheel them around and promote the idea!

1946

Orla Watson makes the first big shopping

cart innovation: a rear swinging end that

allows carts to nest together in a line in

order to save space.

1950 s

Shopping cart makers build on

Watson’s idea by making a nesting version

of a single basket cart, with even more

space for big suburban shopping trips.

Rolling, Rolling

Let’s take a moment to appreciate one of the

greatest inventions of all time: the grocery cart.

e talk incessantly about how the internet has transformed our

shopping habits, but decades ago a simple little creation—basically

a wire basket on wheels—forever changed the way we get our

groceries. Before the grocery cart came along, shopping for food was an entirely

different (and codependent) system: Customers had to ask store clerks for what

they wanted and the clerks handed over the goods from behind a counter. The

experience was hyper-personal—and hyper-inefficient! Then the carts rolled in...

1983

Megastores Costco and Sam’s Club arrive,

with enormous carts to match. Retailers

discover that doubling the size of a standard

shopping cart can lead consumers

to buy 40 percent more stuff!

Those abandoned shopping carts on

the side of the road aren’t cheap:

They cost stores about $150 each!

Kid-size shopping carts aren’t just for

play. Child-development experts say

they help teach independence, and store

owners hope they help build brand loyalty.

Grab some sanitizing wipes: One

study found about 138,000 bacteria

per square inch on a cart handle and

seat, more than the amount on surfaces

in a public restroom!

Cart Smarts

$

40 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE ●SEPTEMBER 2020

TOP SHOPPING CART AND 1950S CART: GETTY IMAGES. 1916: PERIOD PAPER. 1936: OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 1946.: TELESCOPING SHOPP

ING CART COLLECTION,

ARCHIVES CENTER, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 1983: HIP2SAVE.COM. 2000: ALAMY.

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Serve Yourself! ----4 Pushing for Carts--~ All Together Now

Big Time ----~ Supersizing It----~ Kid Stuff