it's wikipedia day for whimsical wednesday! we're having an adventure exploring the on-line encyclopedia. learn something new about a subject you are interested in or just enjoy browsing. here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
yesterday i was catching the weather on the weather channel. to highlight santa ana winds, the scene aired was a lone shopping cart being rolled by the wind across the parking lot. that prompted my wikipedia quest for whimsical wednesday. the shopping cart!
according to wikipedia, the shopping cart that evolved into the shopping cart of today was the owner of the piggly wiggly grocery store in oklahoma city, sylvan goldman. the first cart was in the store on june 4, 1937. shoppers were not impressed. women felt shopping carts were like baby carriages and men thought pushing the cart was too girly. not to be deterred, goldman waged a marketing campaign to make the shopping carts acceptable. he hired male and female models to push carts around the store as well as have greeters at the store's entrance to explain the use of the cart. carts became accepted and sales rose. other stores, grocery and department, introduced carts and sales rose in those stores as well. once introduced the major problems with carts became injured children, wonky wheels and cart theft. which, of course, demonstrates that everything has drawbacks!
carts by other names are still carts! around the world the shopping cart is referred to as: buggy, trolley, barrae, bascart, basket, carriage, wagon.
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