1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,719 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:13,520 Speaker 1: show for those interested in the big and small moments 4 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:18,200 Speaker 1: of history. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're looking at 5 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,760 Speaker 1: the origin of the humble shopping cart, also known as 6 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:26,119 Speaker 1: a shopping carriage, trolley, or buggy, whatever you call it, 7 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,720 Speaker 1: though it's now an indispensable tool of the self serve 8 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: retail model and one of the earliest modes of travel 9 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: for generations of children worldwide. The day was June fourth, 10 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven. Sylvan Goldman introduced the world's first shopping 11 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 1: cart at his Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain in Oklahoma City. 12 00:00:55,920 --> 00:01:00,640 Speaker 1: Goldman called the cart's folding basket carriers, and although customers 13 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: were hesitant to use them at first, the concept quickly 14 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: caught on and was later adopted by all kinds of 15 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:12,600 Speaker 1: retail stores, not just supermarkets. Sylvan Nathan Goldman was born 16 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: on November fifteenth, eighteen ninety eight, in the Ardmore region 17 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,039 Speaker 1: of the Chickasaw Nation, which is now a part of Oklahoma. 18 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: He got into the grocery business at an early age, 19 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: helping out after school at a dry goods store owned 20 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 1: by his father and uncle. He put that experience to 21 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:33,200 Speaker 1: good use during World War I, when he served as 22 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 1: a food requisitionist for the U. S Army in France. 23 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,839 Speaker 1: After the war, Goldman partnered with his older brother Alfred, 24 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: to open the Goldman Brothers Wholesale Fruits and Produce Store 25 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: in Breckinridge, Texas. A few years later, the brothers were 26 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: living in California when they first encountered a new kind 27 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: of grocery store, one that offered all types of products produce, 28 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: dry goods, meats, and dairy under one roof This concept, 29 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,760 Speaker 1: known as the supermarket, also introduced self service to the 30 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:10,120 Speaker 1: grocery industry. Instead of having sales clerks gather a customer's 31 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: items from behind a counter, the customers shopped for themselves, 32 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:18,240 Speaker 1: collecting items in a basket provided by the store. The 33 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,880 Speaker 1: Goldman Brothers were so taken with this convenient new approach 34 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: to shopping that they returned to Oklahoma to help introduce 35 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: it in their home state. In nineteen twenty, they opened 36 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 1: their first Sun Grocery Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and by 37 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: the following year they'd opened twenty more stores all over 38 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: the state. The company continued to grow throughout the nineteen twenties, 39 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 1: and at the end of the decade, Sylvan and Alfred 40 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: sold it off to the Safeway supermarket chain and made 41 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: a tidy profit in the process. Five years after that, 42 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty four, the brothers purchased another Oklahoma grocery 43 00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: chain called Humpty Dumpty. The brand hadn't been doing well 44 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 1: when the Goldmans took it over, but they quickly whipped 45 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 1: it into shape, thanks in no small part to Sylvan's 46 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:11,240 Speaker 1: forward thinking use of advertising. It was two years into 47 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:15,520 Speaker 1: that new venture that Sylvan Goldman noticed a problem. Most 48 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:19,079 Speaker 1: of his customers carried their groceries and handheld baskets while 49 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: they shopped, but once the basket was full or too 50 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:24,959 Speaker 1: heavy to carry comfortably, they would call it a day 51 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,840 Speaker 1: and head for the checkout counter. This got Goldman thinking, 52 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:31,920 Speaker 1: if there was some way for customers to carry two 53 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,000 Speaker 1: baskets and still have one free hand to shop with, 54 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: they would probably buy considerably more items. The way to 55 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: achieve this wasn't readily apparent, but one night, while working 56 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: late at the office, Goldman noticed a wooden folding chair 57 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: and had an epiphany. He enlisted the help of a 58 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: young mechanic and Humpty Dumpty employee named Fred Young, and 59 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: together they devised a prototype based on the folding chair. 60 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,119 Speaker 1: The result was a folding metal frame with four wheels 61 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: attached to the bottom and two wire baskets positioned one 62 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: on top of the other in place of the chair seat. 63 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: It took a few more months of tinkering to perfect 64 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: the design, but by the end of nineteen thirty six, 65 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: Goldman was so pleased with his new invention that he 66 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: founded the Folding Basket Carrier Company to manufacture it. The 67 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 1: first finished carts were rolled out at Humpty Dumpty locations 68 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City on June fourth, nineteen thirty seven. That 69 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:35,480 Speaker 1: same day, Goldman ran an ad in the local papers 70 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,799 Speaker 1: to help spread the word. It showed a woman struggling 71 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: with an overladen basket alongside an image of the convenient 72 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: mobile cart. The accompanying text heralded the invention, saying quote, 73 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: it's new. It's sensational, no more baskets to carry. But 74 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:58,480 Speaker 1: despite that clear advantage, the shopping cart rollout turned out 75 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: to be a flop. As is often the case, customers 76 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:05,120 Speaker 1: were resistant to change and came up with a variety 77 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:09,120 Speaker 1: of reasons to avoid using them. The most common complaint 78 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:12,000 Speaker 1: came from female shoppers, who at the time were the 79 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 1: primary market for grocery stores. Women thought the carts were 80 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:20,280 Speaker 1: too similar to baby carriages, and since many mothers already 81 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:23,520 Speaker 1: spent much of the day pushing heavy strollers, they didn't 82 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:28,240 Speaker 1: want to repeat the activity while shopping. Goldman's carts, or 83 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 1: folding basket carriers, as he called them, proved equally unpopular 84 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: with male shoppers. In a telling show of male fragility, 85 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: many men thought that pushing a cart made them look 86 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 1: feminine and suggested they were too weak to carry a basket. 87 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:47,720 Speaker 1: A less assured entrepreneur would have backed down after such 88 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:50,839 Speaker 1: a chilly reception, but Goldman knew the carts were a 89 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: good idea, so instead of throwing in the towel, he 90 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: doubled down and launched a savvy, stealth marketing campaign to 91 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: win over his reluctant customers. Goldman hired attractive male and 92 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,599 Speaker 1: female models of all different ages and paid them to 93 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: push around the carts in his stores while pretending to shop. 94 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:12,919 Speaker 1: He also added a greeter to the front of the 95 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: store to offer carts to customers as they arrived. These 96 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:21,359 Speaker 1: tactics made shoppers feel less self conscious about using the carts, 97 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:27,599 Speaker 1: and pretty soon the initial stigma surrounding them was completely gone. Unfortunately, 98 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:32,039 Speaker 1: Goldman's success turned bittersweet just one month later when his 99 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:36,280 Speaker 1: brother Alfred passed away unexpectedly while vacationing in New York. 100 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:40,359 Speaker 1: Sylvan carried on the family business in his brother's honor, 101 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: and also began supplying his patented shopping carts to other 102 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: grocery stores besides his own. By nineteen forty, the carts 103 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,479 Speaker 1: had grown so popular that companies wishing to buy them 104 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:56,159 Speaker 1: had to join a seven year waiting list. Goldman's theory 105 00:06:56,279 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 1: had proven correct, with customers buying far more on average 106 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: than they had in the basket only days. In fact, 107 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: many supermarkets had to install larger checkout counters just to 108 00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:11,640 Speaker 1: accommodate all the extra food that people were buying. The 109 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: rest of the stores layouts were redesigned around the carts 110 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: as well. Aisles were widened so they'd be easier to navigate, 111 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: and extra storage space was added at the front to 112 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 1: ensure there were always plenty of carts to go around. 113 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 1: Goldman's shopping carts made him a multi millionaire, but his 114 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,240 Speaker 1: game changing is. His initial idea was it still left 115 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: room for improvement. For one thing, the baskets and the 116 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 1: folding frame of the cart were separate pieces that had 117 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 1: to be stored separately in order to conserve space. This 118 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:47,440 Speaker 1: meant that each cart had to be assembled and disassembled 119 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: before and after each use, and if a customer couldn't 120 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: or wouldn't handle that themselves, then an employee had to 121 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,120 Speaker 1: do it for them. That began to change in nineteen 122 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 1: forty six when a Missouri the engineer named Orla Watson 123 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: added a swinging door feature to the rear of the 124 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: shopping cart. That way, when the front end of one 125 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: cart was pushed into the rear of another, the vertical 126 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: door on each of the two baskets would swing upward, 127 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: allowing one cart's baskets to nest inside the others. According 128 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 1: to Watson's marketing brochure, his telescoping shopping carts took up 129 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:27,840 Speaker 1: one fifth the storage space of a regular cart, and 130 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: with no assembly or disassembly required. Watson built several prototypes 131 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: and shot them around to Kansas City grocers. He also 132 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: filed a patent application, but Sulvan Goldman quickly contested it 133 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: and submitted a similar patent of his own. The dispute 134 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,200 Speaker 1: dragged on for several years, but in nineteen forty nine 135 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: Goldman and Watson finally reached an agreement. Goldman would relinquish 136 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:58,480 Speaker 1: his claim and withdraw his application, and in return, Watson 137 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,720 Speaker 1: would grant him the licensing runs for the telescoping carts 138 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: and allow them to manufacture and sell them, with Watson 139 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:10,280 Speaker 1: receiving a royalty for every cart that Goldman sold. The 140 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 1: shopping cart continued to evolve in the years ahead. The 141 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 1: twin baskets grew bigger to encourage customers to buy more, 142 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: until finally, in the nineteen fifties, they were merged into 143 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 1: the single large basket that most of us are accustomed 144 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,439 Speaker 1: to today. From that point on, grocery cart design has 145 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: remained largely static, with the exception of a few tweaks 146 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,720 Speaker 1: and additions such as the all important baby seat, a 147 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: couple of drink holders, and wheel locks to help prevent theft. Today, 148 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,440 Speaker 1: nearly ninety years after its invention, Goldman's shopping cart is 149 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:48,960 Speaker 1: a standard feature at grocery stores and other retailers all 150 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:52,440 Speaker 1: over the world. In fact, the cart is so closely 151 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: associated with the activity of shopping that its name and 152 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:01,240 Speaker 1: image are even used by online retailers, a breakthrough business 153 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: tool to a universal symbol of commerce. Sylvan Goldman's bright 154 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:12,720 Speaker 1: idea just keeps rolling along. I'm Gabe blues Yay, and 155 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,240 Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today 156 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,560 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up 157 00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:22,320 Speaker 1: with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, 158 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:26,560 Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have 159 00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my 160 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. 161 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:37,480 Speaker 1: Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks 162 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:39,880 Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again 163 00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in History class.