When it comes to life-changing inventions, few groups can boast more accomplishments than the Jews.
The polio vaccine? Dr. Jonas Salk, a Jew. The theory of relativity? Albert Einstein — also Jewish. The technology behind modern wireless communication? Jewish actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. The modern feminist movement? Betty Friedan, baby.
So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the most ubiquitous objects in modern life was also invented by a Jew: The shopping cart.
The next time you grab one at the grocery store, take a moment to thank Sylvan “Syl” Goldman, a Jewish Oklahoma businessman who changed the way we shop, and, in the process, figured out how to get Americans to buy more stuff.
Goldman was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma in 1898 to Jewish immigrant parents. He grew up working in his family’s grocery business and, after serving in France during World War I, went into the food business with his brother Alfred. The brothers eventually owned a chain of grocery stores.
By the 1930s, grocery shopping was changing. More Americans had cars and refrigerators, making it easier to buy more food at once. Previously, shoppers typically handed their lists to attendants who collected the items for them (like we might still do at the deli counter today), but it was around this time that more stores were shifting toward self-service, meaning shoppers had to carry their own purchases around the store.
Goldman noticed something that, in retrospect, seems pretty obvious. When the basket got too heavy, shoppers stopped shopping.
His solution was equally obvious. What if the basket had wheels?
In 1936, Goldman and a local craftsman named Fred Young began developing a rolling basket. According to the Smithsonian, Goldman’s earliest prototype involved two folding lawn chairs tethered together, with wheels added for mobility. The design evolved into a collapsible metal frame with two shelves for grocery baskets. Eventually, he found someone to manufacture the contraptions at scale for use in his stores.
There was just one tiny problem.
No one wanted to use them.
Shoppers initially resisted the carts. Some thought they were unnecessary. Others simply weren’t interested in looking like they needed help carrying their groceries. (In a 1977 interview, Goldman said the men, in particular, found them “too effeminate.”) Goldman had created a machine designed to make shopping easier, but it seemed he solved a problem no one actually thought they had.
Undeterred, Goldman got creative.
He hired actors to push the carts around his stores, demonstrating just how convenient they were. He also launched an advertising campaign encouraging shoppers to give them a try. One of the ads he placed in a local newspaper read: “Can you imagine wending your way through a spacious food market without having to carry a cumbersome shopping basket on your arm?” It took some time, but customers eventually got on board.
The shopping cart had officially entered the mainstream.
Goldman patented his invention in 1940 and began manufacturing carts for other stores. He continued refining the design, eventually adopting the collapsible front panel that allows carts to nest neatly inside one another, a small but crucial innovation that made it possible for shops to store hundreds of carts without requiring an entire cart parking lot. Interestingly, another inventor claimed that Goldman stole his design for these carts, resulting in Goldman having to pay the other inventor, Orla Watson, a licensing fee.
Goldman’s invention changed far more than the way we carried groceries. With carts, shoppers could buy more at once, encouraging supermarkets to grow larger and stock more products. The humble cart even helped reshape the physical layout of American grocery stores, with wider aisles designed to accommodate shoppers pushing their increasingly full carts. And he even added a child seat to the design after a few years, making them more friendly for parents.
And Goldman wasn’t finished inventing. He also developed grocery bagging mechanisms, milk bottle racks and baggage carts like the ones you’ve probably encountered at hotels.
Still, the shopping cart — a deceptively simple invention that changed the way Americans shop — was his crowning achievement .
Later in his life, Goldman was known around Oklahoma City for his philanthropy as much as his shopping cart. He died there in 1984 at age 86. By then, his little wheeled basket had become so thoroughly embedded in American life that most of us probably never stop to wonder who invented it.
So, the next time you are checking out at Target and find all the unapproved items your kids snuck in the cart when you weren’t looking? You’ve got Syl Goldman to thank for that.
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