On June 4, 1937, the American supermarket owner Sylvan Goldman (1898-1984) introduced the shopping cart. A lucrative invention that is still indispensable in the supermarket.
In the first design for this shopping cart, the supermarket owner was inspired by a folding chair in his office. The car, which Goldman designed together with store employee Fred Young, had a steel frame in which two carrying baskets could be placed one above the other.
The entrepreneur reasoned that this was convenient not only for his customers, but also for himself. After all, shoppers could now take much more with them, which brought in extra money…
Goldman quickly realized that the shopping cart could become a global success. That same year, he founded the Folding Carrier Basket Company – today’s Unarco – for the mass production of the cars. Initially, some men had problems with the wagons, which they considered feminine. For example, a customer once said to Goldman:
“I’ve pushed enough prams.”
Goldman came up with a solution to that ‘problem’. He hired both male and female models to show off the convenience of shopping carts in his supermarkets. The cars were a resounding success worldwide. And Goldman lived up to his last name. Thanks to his patents, he made a fortune from shopping carts. The design was modified after some time. Instead of two baskets, the wagons got one basket, the so-called ‘nest wagon’, which can still be found in supermarkets.
