Almost everybody in America will spend a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart. He or she will, in a lifetime, push it many miles. But few will know一or even think to ask— who invented it.
Sylvan N. Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937. At that time he was in the supermarket business. Every day he would see shoppers carrying the shopping baskets hard. One day Goldman suddenly had the idea of putting baskets on wheels. The wheeled baskets would make shopping much easier for his customers, and would help to attract more business.
On June 4, 1937, Goldman's first carts were ready for use in his market. He was terribly excited on the morning of that day as customers began arriving. He couldn't wait to see them using his invention. But, Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try. After a while, Goldman decided to ask customers why they weren't using his carts. "Don't you think this arm is strong enough to carry a shopping basket?" one shopper replied. But Goldman wasn't beaten yet. He knew his carts would be a great success if only people could give them a try. To this end, Goldman hired a group of people to push carts around his market as if they' were shopping! Seeing" this, the real customers gradually began copying them.
As Goldman had hoped, the carts were soon attracting larger and larger numbers of customers to his market. As a result, more people came一those who came bought more. With larger, easier-to- handle baskets, customers bought a greater number of items than before.
Today's shopping carts are five times larger than Goldman's earliest model. Americans today spend more than five times as much money on food each year as they did in 1937- before the coming of the shopping cart, perhaps the shopping cart is one reason.
