An Enterprising Grocer in the 1930s Aimed to Simplify the Purchasing Process for His Customers to Increase Sales. They Merely Required a Nudge

There was an era when shoppers could only purchase as much as they could bear. Despite the commonality of shopping carts today, it initially required some persuasion to adopt their use.

Sylvan Goldman, a businessman hailing from Oklahoma, was employed by a California grocery wholesaler following World War I when he became intrigued by the novel “supermarkets” that housed everything in one place. However, he observed a challenge: Shoppers were only acquiring what they could manage in bags and baskets. In 1920, he and his brother, Alfred, returned the supermarket idea to Oklahoma, creating their own chain of stores. Still, Goldman was troubled by the ongoing issue of customers being restricted by their arms.

Goldman’s initial shopping cart prototype in 1936 was impressively rudimentary. It featured two folding chairs facing each other with wheels affixed to the bottom and a basket positioned on top. He unveiled the first official shopping cart on June 4, 1937, at the Humpty Dumpty grocery store in Oklahoma City.

However, Goldman felt disheartened when he discovered that customers were averse to the innovative devices. Women, weary of baby strollers, rejected the notion of pushing anything else around a store. Men deemed the carts unmasculine and claimed maneuvering them was “women’s work,” as noted by Alyson Atchison, director of galleries and collections at the Science Museum Oklahoma. The museum currently exhibits the first cart Goldman introduced for public use—which spent its initial days neglected and untouched at the front of his store.

Goldman’s remedy was both sophisticated and straightforward: He employed attractive models to shop in the store while confidently maneuvering the carts, demonstrating to other shoppers how practical and stylish they could be. Witnessing the allure, shoppers began to imitate these appealing men and women. Other grocers quickly demanded the carts, but many had to wait: By 1940, store proprietors wishing to purchase new shopping carts reportedly encountered a seven-year backlog. That same year, Goldman commenced production of the more recognizable nesting cart (after a patent dispute regarding the design), which addressed the chaotic issue of managing those carts between customer visits. 

Food vendors started offering larger container sizes in stores, realizing that customers could now effortlessly transport bulky items. Goldman’s simple invention laid the groundwork for today’s retail environment filled with oversized products. As Atchison states, those wheels “transformed and revamped shopping indefinitely.”

And they show no indication of stopping. In the present day, 20 million to 25 million shopping carts are rolling through America’s retail establishments at any moment, averaging one cart for every 13 Americans.