Telescoping Shopping Cart
Telescoping Shopping Cart
Previous
Next
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- The convenience and carrying capacity of shopping carts play an important role in the sales of a self-service supermarket. Inventor of the earliest model of the shopping cart, Sylvan Goldman of Oklahoma City, described his idea in 1939 as a "combination of basket and carriage." The frame he devised held two baskets and was like a folding chair with wheels. In 1946, Orla E. Watson of Kansas City, developed these telescoping shopping carts that were "always ready" and required no assembly or disassembly of components before or after use.
- Watson's telescoping feature allowed carts to nestle into other carts for compact storage. Each additional parked cart, claimed the brochure, required "only one-fifth as much space as an ordinary cart," which meant more carts for shoppers as well as more retail space for store owners.
- Object Name
- shopping cart
- date made
- ca 1949
- maker
- Telescope Carts, Inc.
- place made
- United States: Missouri, Kansas City
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 94 cm x 39.5 cm x 60 cm; 37 in x 15 9/16 in x 23 5/8 in
- overall: 49 in x 89 in x 28 in; 124.46 cm x 226.06 cm x 71.12 cm
- ID Number
- 2000.0166.01
- accession number
- 2000.0166
- patent number
- 2479530
- catalog number
- 2000.0166.01
- Credit Line
- Gift of Edith Watson
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Retail and Marketing
- Food
- FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000
- Family & Social Life
- Exhibition
- Food: Transforming the American Table
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
Diane Klein
Thu, 2021-03-25 09:28