24. Shopping carts were not well received when they were invented
The shopping cart is an American invention, created in 1937 by a grocery executive named Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City. Goldman envisioned the cart allowing customers to carry a greater number of products conveniently and easily, and thus also being more likely to purchase more. But he found when he introduced the patented design in his Humpty-Dumpty stores that customers avoided the carts. When he sought to find out why such an obvious convenience was treated disdainfully he learned that men found pushing a cart full of groceries to be effeminate. Women on the other hand thought the carts reminiscent of baby carriages.
Goldman decided to promote the use of grocery carts in his stores by hiring greeters in the stores to offer them to arriving customers and explain their use. He also hired models, male and female, to walk about the store, going through the motions of shopping, to demonstrate their convenience and to get customers used to their being seen throughout the store. He likely did not hire people to demonstrate how to block whole aisles with the devices, that was something customers undoubtedly learned on their own. Goldman also invented the nesting baggage carts found in airports and train stations around the world.