Sylvan Nathan Goldman - Inventor of the shopping cart

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Audience/Grade:	College Freshman - College Senior
Discipline(s):	Design History of Science and Technology Industrial Design Mechanical Engineering Technology and Society
Special Topic(s):	History of Technology
Learning Resource Type:	Reference - Article/Document
Media Type:	Document
Author(s):	Real Cart University
Description:	"A couple of ordinary folding chairs were the inspiration that spawned the early prototypes of today’s shopping cart. This invention helped revolutionize the retail grocery business. Sylvan N. Goldman had long thought about how to expand the natural limits of a grocery shopper’s purchases. His stores, like others of that era, had a supply of wicker or wire market baskets. These baskets became heavy as they were loaded with food items, particularly for the woman buyer, who usually did most of the shopping. In an effort to offset this problem, Goldman had issued instructions that certain store personnel should keep a watchful eye for shoppers with loaded baskets and offer them empty ones to finish their buying. The filled baskets were to be taken to designated checkout stands, where customers could pick them up later."
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Keywords:	shopping carts, retail, industrial design


Usage Tip
Use of Resource:	Continuing impact today "Even today the effectiveness of the shopping cart in retailing can be measured by comparing the retail stores that do use shopping carts with the stores that don?t use them. Wal-Mart, which uses shopping carts, has shown a much greater increase in retail sales than Sears which doesn?t use them. Studies by Britt Beemer of the American Research Group shows that customers with shopping carts will buy an average of 7.2 items compared with only 6.1 items purchased by customers without shopping carts. However, this does not tell the whole story since Beemer has found that the use of shopping carts will double the sales of hard to carry bulky items."
Difficulty:	Easy
Interactivity Level:	Very Low