To convince customers to use them, Goldman hired people to walk around the store with shopping carts and fill them up. Customers began following these shills’ example and soon all of Goldman’s ...

Its shopping cart had been sitting idle for 23 minutes. In it was a pair of children’s black rubber slides, priced at $160. Also visible in the customer’s browsing history : a baby bomber ...

The birth of shopping carts in the early 20th century helped usher in an era of mass consumption and enabled grocery stores and brands to expand their products — without customers worrying about ...