A shopping cart (American English) or trolley (British English) is a wheeled cart provided by a shop or store, particularly supermarkets, for customers to use inside the premises to transport merchandise as they move around the premises, while shopping, prior to heading to the checkout counter, cashiers, or tills. Increasing the number of items a shopper can gather improves the number of items they are likely to buy in a single trip, increasing business profits.

Customers can often use the cart to take their purchases to their automobiles. However, some carts are intended to magnetically lock the wheels to prevent them from leaving the store or the authorized parking area. Customers are invited to leave their carts at specified spots within the parking lot in various locations around the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and shop staff will return the carts to the entrances. In certain places, carts are linked by locking systems that need the input of a coin or token to unlock each one. The currency is released to the client when the cart is returned to its assigned place.

Due to the high amounts of germs that commonly reside on shopping carts, studies have indicated that customers should clean the handles and basket regions before handling or filling them with items. This is because the carts have been exposed to prior users’ skin bacteria to a significant degree.

On June 4, 1937, Sylvan Goldman, the proprietor of the Humpty Dumpty grocery chain in Oklahoma, launched one of the earliest shopping carts. In 1936, Goldman was in his office late one night, pondering how customers could move more food. He discovered a wooden folding chair and added a basket to the seat as well as wheels to the legs. Goldman and one of his workers, Fred Young, a mechanic, started fiddling. A metal frame housed two wire baskets in their first shopping cart. Goldman dubbed his carts “folding basket carriers” because they were inspired by the folding chair. Another mechanic, Arthur Kosted, invented an assembly line capable of shaping and welding the wire, which he used to mass-produce the carts. On April 9, 1940 (filing date: March 14, 1938), the cart was granted patent number 2,196,914 for “Folding Basket Carriage for Self-Service Stores.” The idea was promoted as part of a new “No Basket Carrying Plan.” Self-serve shops were pioneered by Goldman, and carts were a component of the self-serve retail idea.

The concept did not take off right away. Men thought they were effeminate, while ladies thought they looked like a baby carriage. An angry lady informed Goldman, “I’ve pushed my last kid.” Shopping carts were immensely popular after Goldman hired many male and female models to push his new invention throughout his store and show its utility, as well as greeters to explain their usage.

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