Shopping Cart Day 2023: Date, History, Facts about Shopping

The 4th of June is Shopping Cart Day, commemorating the trolleys on wheels we use to navigate the aisles of a supermarket. The inventor of shopping carts wished to increase the amount of time customers spent in a supermarket in order to maximise overall profitability by expanding the cart’s capacity to momentarily transport items. The initial designs included carrying capacity and containers. In addition to push-pull ease, wheel rotation, and material weight, many other factors had to be considered. Initially, shopping carts did not take on because many men found the concept too “feminine” and many women believed that pushing a shopping cart would be too similar to pushing a baby carriage.

The background of Shopping Cart Day

The 4th of June is Shopping Cart Day, commemorating the invention of the efficient shopping cart, which has been a tremendous success in making purchasing more convenient. The purchasing cart was created out of necessity to increase the supermarket’s profitability. People did not begin utilising purchasing carts until the late 1930s, when supermarkets were becoming increasingly common. Customers were required to tote around wire baskets that became too heavy after a short period of shopping. This resulted in a decline in supermarket sales. Sylvan Goldman, an American businessman and the proprietor of the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain in Oklahoma, conceived the idea of creating a shopping cart after observing this trend.

A foldable chair inspired Goldman’s creativity. He mounted a wire receptacle to the folding chair and rolled it around his office to evaluate its effectiveness. Goldman, realising he may be onto something, enlisted the assistance of his employee and mechanic, Fred Young. The two collaborated on the design prior to the 1937 invention of the ultimate product. Goldman referred to the metal frame housing two wire baskets as the folding basket carriers. Customers at the time viewed the purchasing cart as either too feminine or too annoying. Ever the master of solutions, Goldman recruited attractive male and female models to use the shopping carts in his store, and the public soon followed suit. Throughout the succeeding decades, the design of the shopping trolley would undergo several modifications. Some of the designs featured a baby seat, while others featured a rear that could be folded to increase stowage capacity and save space.

5 shopping facts that will blow your mind

In Mesopotamia, 4,000 years ago, a consumer named Nanni filed the first customer service complaint after being sold inferior copper ingots.

In Utah, divorce papers could be purchased from a vending machine for $2.50 in the late 1800s.

According to a study conducted at Brigham Young University, if you want to avoid overspending while purchasing, you should wear high heels.

There are more shopping centres than schools in the United States.

63% of Americans do not have enough savings to cover an emergency expense of $500.

SHOPPING CART DAY DATES