Monday, January 7, 2013

An Everyday Item

Something everyone uses but never really appreciates...can you guess what it might be? How about a shopping cart! Before the shopping cart was invented shoppers used heavy metal baskets to struggle through their shopping. Can you imagine how cumbersome that would have been with a Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings filling it?
In the spring of 1937 Sylvan Goldman,owner of Standard Food Markets and Humpty Dumpty Supermarkets in Oklahoma City,got an idea of how to make shopping easier. He took a couple of folding wooden chairs,mounted wheels on them and sat the metal basket on the chairs. Oddly enough no one wanted to use them. Men thought the cart would make them appear weak,older people didn't want to look helpless and young women felt they were unstylish. Not to be thwarted Mr. Goldman hired male and female models to pretend to shop using the carts,and hired greeters to show customers how to use the device. The rest as they say is history.
Using your imagination you can almost see how the chairs were used to make this early model.

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