The History of Shopping Carts

Hey there,

Do you know how shopping carts came into being? On June 4, 1937, Sylvan Goldman, owner of the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain in Oklahoma introduced shopping carts.

One night, in 1936, Goldman sat in his office wondering how customers might move more groceries. He found a wooden folding chair and put a basket on the seat and wheels on the legs. Goldman along with his mechanic, Fred Young, began tinkering with the cart. Their first shopping cart was a metal frame that held two wire baskets. Since they were inspired by the folding chair, Goldman called his carts "folding basket carriers".?

In 1938, Arthur Kosted developed a method to mass-produce the carts by inventing an assembly line capable of forming and welding the wire. It was called "Folding Basket Carriage for Self-Service Stores". It was then advertised as part of a new “No Basket Carrying Plan." Goldman had already pioneered self-serve stores and carts were part of the self-serve retail concept

The invention did not catch on immediately. After hiring several male and female models to push his new invention around his store and demonstrate their utility, as well as greeters to explain their use, shopping carts became extremely popular and Goldman became a multimillionaire.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

Now, Shopping is unthinkable without shopping carts. It's a simple, easy, and efficient way to shop at retail stores.

This story reminds me of cart recovery on WhatsApp. Brands can now use WhatsApp to drive cart abandonment and drive higher conversions on Website and App. Here's an example:

Here’s a helpful ebook on how you can recover abandoned carts using WhatsApp.