Who invented the grocery shopping cart and how?

Goldman observed that customers who used wire and wicker shopping carts at that time had difficulty as their carts filled up, and realized that this would stop their purchases. The initial inspiration for the design came from a folding chair in his office. Together with his colleague Fred Young, Goldman designed and produced the first shopping cart, in which a metal frame with wheels on the bottom accommodates two wire baskets on top of each other. The frame folded flat like the chair that preceded the design.

Sylvan Nathan Goldman (November 15, 1898 – November 25, 1984) was an American businessman and inventor of the shopping cart. His design had a pair of large wire baskets connected by tubular metal arms with four wheels.

Goldman, who made this design, then founded Folding Carrier Basket A.Ş. A mechanic named Arthur Kosted developed a production line process for mass-producing cars and began promoting this product in his stores. Men initially failed because they found this product to be feminine, and women criticized it for being a bit too much like a stroller. In fact, a customer is reported to have told Goldman, "I'm pushing enough strollers, and I'm going to push this one". Goldman overcame this problem by hiring models of both genders and various ages and having them drive the cars in the store. Shopping carts became so popular by 1940 that those who ordered the product were put on a seven-year waiting list. Goldman, on the other hand, added to his fortune by collecting royalties from each shopping cart sold.

Although its original design was good enough, Goldman developed the telescopic shopping cart a few years later that you can see everywhere today. With a single basket and significantly more storage space, this design continues to be used, more than seventy years later, as nothing better can be found.