The shopping cart has come a long way from its humble origins — from a supermarket chain in Oklahoma to the software that holds all our Amazon purchases. As the shopping season reaches its peak, let’s look at the path our familiar cart traveled to get to where it is today.
Early Carts
In 1936, the owner of the Humpty Dumpty Supermarket chain had a problem. He was one of the first self-service grocery stores in the U.S. and needed customers to move more groceries at once. Alas, the first shopping cart was born. It was not much more than a folding chair with a basket and wheels on the legs. An employee (a mechanic) added a metal frame and wire baskets. From there, the cart continued to evolve. For example, in 1946, Orla Watson devised the nesting shopping carts we are familiar with today, and in 2017, a mobile device shelf was added to the cart.
The Cart Goes Online
The shopping cart online has been around since the first web browser. When Netscape and other web browsers launched in 1993-94, there were several online storefront models to choose from as people began to gain access to the Internet. The Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model eventually won out. A website acts as an online storefront where the consumer needs a location to accumulate their potential purchases, creating a shopping cart. Trading the wheels and basket for code, the cart essentially fulfills the same purpose: a location for goods to be placed while the consumer works through the store’s offerings. This is the premier online shopping method, and the cart has new life online.
So remember, whether you are rushing through a retail store in the chaos of a Black Friday event or just picking up some items for a loved one on Amazon’s Cyber Monday, the cart will be there for you. It is one of the oldest companions in the adventure of holiday shopping.