Of course there was a time when I thought it was positively adorable to plonk W into one of those bean cars attached to my shopping cart at the grocery store. Ah bliss, as my adorable toddler happily drove and beeped the horn of his child cart while I filled the basket area with items from our grocery list.
But then, probably the third time I was dumb enough to get a car buggy, I could no longer figure out how to maneuver it around the store. Also? W had figured out how to unbuckle himself and crawl through the front window of the car. There is nothing quite like the terror of your two-year old making a bee-line towards the glass jars of pasta sauce on the bottom row. Sure I was probably getting a hell of a workout pushing the extra 100+ pounds of plastic around the market, but my annoyance and frustration level were sky-high because as I paused to put an item in the cart I had to also quickly make sure W was not crawling out or reaching out or leaning out.
I abruptly decided that we would no longer be employing car shopping carts on our trips. I was firm. It was horrible. 80% of the time I never actually managed to do any shopping because one really can not force a giant toddler into the seat area of a regular shopping cart. I (ha ha ha ha) tried to negotiate with my two-year old. Did really bad parenting stuff like try to bribe him with new toys or extra tv if he would just EFFING SIT DOWN so Mommy can get some mothertrucking milk.
The 18% of the time he actually did, somehow, sit down in a regular shopping cart he protested with shrieks and screams so passionately that I usually just pulled him right out and left the store. Don’t even get me started on the 2% moments where things were going just great – until he saw another kid tooling around the store in a car shopping cart. Then it was a shrill, “WHERE MY CAR BUGGY MOMMY???!!!”
I started doing shopping while he was at school. Started researching the stores near me that have started to advertise for free grocery delivery. All because I have been kicked in the shins by the car shopping cart.
Are there children that sit in these cars and behave? And if so do the parents/ adults pushing the carts actually LIKE the extra heft?
According to McCue Corporation (a company that makes and sells these shopping carts):
“Think like a mother. With kids sitting pretty in a Bean, your customers have a happy shopping experience ahead. That can easily breed up to 20% more sales, per shopping trip. By offering your customer Bean, you attract more moms — and build incredible customer loyalty. Day in and day out. The shopping experience just got a whole lot more fun!”
Really?
To be honest I like to know about grocery stores that DON’T have these beasts available. I would be so incredibly loyal and devoted to them. Point me towards a grocery store that has a drive through – now THAT would be “thinking like a mother”.
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
I want a grocery store with online ordering. That would be bliss.
In my previous city, there was a grocery store that did online ordering and would deliver your groceries ($10 per order). It was (expensive) bliss, although I hated not being able to select my own produce.
I hate them, too. Our grocery store has police car carts and my son asks all the time, but I tell him “not this time” and put it off as long as possible…usually I cave about once every 3 or 4 months and then I’m sorry. Germ-infested carts that put them at the level of shelves…yeah, um, no. FAIL.
Publix often doesn’t. And when they do. It’s a tall one that sits up where the handle is and just has bench seats and 2 steering wheels. LOVE publix for kid shopping! The extra heft is a giant pain though.
Our local store has those cars with TVs! in them.
Oh! We went to a grocery store that had carts with tvs in them and the tv battery conked out 10 minutes in. OMG it was such a drama scene.
I hate those carts! We shop at a store that doesn’t have them. We opt for the child size cart. E knows that if he takes his hands off the handle without permission (I let him get small snacks for his cart) then he loses his own cart privilege and has to ride in my big cart.
I actually love these things. But I have a 3-yr old who asks to be buckled and never climbs out and happily munches on a snack while driving one-handed. Just like his mama.
Our grocery store used to have those carts, but I think they got rid of them because they were so hard to store. They don’t have kid-sized carts, but they do have 4 different sizes. And they do offer drive-up. So good with a baby!
drive-up?? NO WAY
super jealous
You should totally write your grocery store a thank you letter
Yes, drive up pickup. So awesome. If our store ever remodels and gets rid of it, I will be sad and probably pout.
I don’t know where HereWeGoAJen lives, but we have grocery stores that deliver here in the Boston area. I haven’t used them, because it’s so pricey. But I keep thinking that I should!
As for the “car carts” as we call them, yes I hate them too and am really glad that my kids are finally (almost) too big for them. My daughter still wants to use them, but is almost at the point where she will climb in and realize she can’t fit in it comfortably and thus give up. But when they were younger, yeah we had to get a car cart every damn time and I hate trying to maneuver that damn thing around the aisles. Such a pain in the rear! And yes with the climbing out the windows. My kids would always climb onto the top of the car part and try to ride up there. Definitely made the whole shopping experience that much more frustrating and time-consuming.
I generally try to get my shopping done without kids, anyway. Soooooooooo much easier in so many ways.
I love those carts. I lurrrve them. The kids (both the 3-year-old and almost-2-year-old) are pretty fond of them too.
Here’s what I do to minimize escapes: (1) let the kids have snacks while sitting in the seats; (2) bring little toys from home — mostly trucks and cars — they can play with; (3) have a designated time when they can each get out and “help” me to put food in the cart; (4) ask them lots of questions about the shopping: do they want X or Y? the green apples or the red apples? the banana yogurt or the strawberry yogurt?
Not only is shopping more fun for all of us, but they’re so proud of the food they helped choose.
I have done snacks, I have provided toys, and I have allotted help time. FAIL
I think some kids are grocery store rock stars and some kids are, well… not
You should email a link to this post to the local supermarkets and see what they say. Luckily we don’t have such things in Israel – yet.
I have been mostly ambivelent toward the car in the front of the cart. My only beef with them is they are pretty small – however, i have the largest child ever (tall) so that isn’t so much the car’s fault. By and large my kid was one to sit still – he was never a climber (far too careful) but he does like to run his hands along the floor (ewww) which would drive me crazy. But he is finally now at 6 years old and 4 foot 4 inches tall decided that he simply too big to wedge himself into the car. My husband loved steeing it around the store but i never could get the hang of the being able to turn with it.
Smooch actually does pretty good in them, but I still hate them!! My local store has two different styles and both are like trying to manuever a city bus through a crowded ally. I always end up knocking over part of a display of hitting someone elses cart. The solution is that I don’t take him or I try to rush in the door where there are no cars waiting and tell him that they are all being used by other kids.
Ha! I just had my two in one of these this morning for the first time (first time together, I mean). It went pretty well, though when my older daughter was around 2, yes, it could get unpleasant. The reason I appreciate them now — and hopefully before too long they will appeal to you for this reason also
— is because they have more than one seat! I usually wear the little one while shopping but sometimes she gets tired of being in the carrier and it’s nice to have options to keep them both contained.
Germs and maneuverability aside, I would probably adore these things were it not for Tot’s own maneuverability. Most of the buckles I’ve seen are broken and he is a climber. He is also fascinated with wheels right now and I am always so nervous that he will stick his hand out to touch it (while it’s moving) when I am not looking. I, like you, end up exhausted.
I much prefer grocery shopping by myself and always have. I don’t like to linger and study and wander while grocery shopping. In and out. I often shop on my lunch hour now and bring in perishables to our work fridge. for quick trips, I try to stop at the store before daycare.
oh yes – the wheel fascination. Yes.
I went shopping solo the other day and was shocked that it only took me 15 minutes.
Not a fan of the car carts. I have two kids who are 19 months apart and they used to fight like demons while in those carts. It didn’t matter how many snacks I gave them or how much I let them help, we could never get out of the produce department without world war 3 breaking out. So they were forever banned from our life.
Now my kids are 9 and 11 and they are a lot of help at the store. It does get better Dresden. eventually….
Often, I have to lug the twins with me when I grocery shop while A is at school, so I have to use a cart that holds two kiddos comfortably. The store I shop at has the kids right next to the handle, but turned away from you with steering wheels, these are the best. I am close enough to them to manage their fighting with one another.
Come live with us. we have a grocery chain that has online shopping and drive through pick up. No lie. Your whole order, waiting for you. Magic. I haven’t done it – I need to be touchy feely with my stuff. But my boss swears by it.
I really hate the car carts. For a while my girly daughter didn’t like them, but then our grocery added a pink butterfly cart and then she just had to have it. The thing I hate about it is that I can’t see her while I am pushing, I’m constantly stopping to peer around the cart to see if she is still there, and because other parents bring snacks for their kids, the cart section is so dirty and sticky and gross! I actually stopped shopping at that store and drive across town because they dont have the stupid butterfly cart.
For awhile he would cry anytime we went to a store that didn’t have those carts. I would purposly go to Wal-mart or Target to avoid them. Then, after awhile, I started telling him he was too big. Even at 5 he still asks some times but I tell him he is far too big.
As the former mother of a Giant Toddler (he’s now fifteen and closing in on 6’6″) I can sympathize. No, he didn’t fit into that little seat. I took a pillow, put it into the base of the shopping cart so he didn’t get gridmarks on his little tushie, spread a quilt over it, and let him sit in the bottom (with, why yes! a new toy! Or an old toy! Or a cookie!). My purse went into the bottom of the cart with The Boy. I stacked my groceries in the seat and on the rack underneath, and sometimes on top of The Boy. He did pretty well about sitting down, particularly if I made funny noises and swirled the shopping cart around the corners like we were at the Indy 500. It worked. He still speaks fondly of shopping carts.
We only have those buggies at the malls. They are more like strollers. lol
The closest I have come to that is the over sized kids seat carts at the Toys R Us. You know the kind… A huge plastic form molded into two or three “big kid” seats right in front of the basket.
What a disaster that is. I always end up tugging the cart away from a ton of toys on the shelves waiting to be knocked in oblivion by me, my kids and the extra long bulky cart!
Now I do most of my shopping when the kiddies go by their mom. Ha!
The loss in maneuverability it tiresome, but the kids love ‘em, and have never tried to escape. Not that that is any indication of my mad parenting skills. Neither of my boys would let me wash my hair until they passed 4. So once every 3 months I would brace myself and endure the screaming and force a close encounter with shampoo… They all pick something.
I hate those carts! I do so love to almost run over: my daughter, the people in the store, the displays, my own feet, etc. Unfortunately, I do not have a giant toddler – I have a petite 5 year old, who still (barely) fits in them. Fortunately, we do most of our shopping at Aldi, where they do not have them. And when we go to the other grocery stores, we “only need a few things” so we get a little basket.
Harris teeter reportedly has curbside pickup. Peapod delivers and whole foods and trader joes don’t have the cars.
Ha! I told my son I didn’t use those carts because I find them hard to steer (true) and fortunately he accepted this. Dreadful things! Unfortunately he’s now too big to sit in any cart, and too energetic to travel a predictable path, but we’re working on that.
I hate those carts with a passion. I do love your idea of a grocery store with a drive through.
Tamale sits wonderfully in them. Burrito is fine until halfway through the shopping trip when he leeeeeans out, his legs still in the car but his torso totally out of the car thanks to the lap-only belt. Then he tries to grab everything that we pass. So yeah, not a fan, but if I had two kids like Tamale I’d probably love them.
I like the ones at Target where there are two seats that face me, up high. Not a car, just seats. A total monstrosity to push, though.
If we have two adults to go shopping, which happens rarely, then each adult gets a kid. Tamale will either sit in the cart or insist on walking around the store, so her adult gets zero shopping done. Burrito is happy to sit in the regular cart, but he grabs any food that’s within reach, so it involves a lot of strategy to place certain items close to him and others far away.
Our old grocery store had a service where you could order everything online the day before then drive up and they’d put it all in your trunk. That was very helpful with toddlers but didn’t really save time because I spent forever picking things out on the website.
Super Target. Costco. Those are where I do most of my grocery shopping. Although my Safeway doesn’t have them either.
My kids are a bit older now but I did have one terribly embarrassing moment with one of these cars.
My oldest, then about 3, had been happily chatting away to himself while driving. I paid no attention. Then when in the line I saw a shopper recoil.
Peering in and listening carefully I saw and heard the best imitation of his father’s previous day’s road rage complete with all the verbiage. Let’s say it was not PG language.
Oh my goodness.
no cars again ever for us.
For those of us with twins, those carts are a lifesaver! In fact I’ve yelled at the grocery store manager when there aren’t any available. Shopping with one of those carts is the only way I can do my shopping. Otherwise I have on in the front and one in the cart and … no where for my groceries. We get donuts at the bakery and they know they have to stay in the cart or we’ll leave.
I may be the dissenting vote, but I don’t totally hate the car carts. It makes B’s day to “drive” us around the store, and if we make a stop by the bakery for his free cookie, he’s a happy camper. We don’t use it every time, he knows it’s a treat when we do (and when I only need a few things, because if it’s a stock-up trip, all of our things won’t fit in the little basket). We must have a different type of cart because I don’t find them hard to push at all, the basket is shorter than a regular car though, so the whole thing is roughly the same size.
Ours has the car part at the top of the cart, pretty much like the usual child seat, but they ride facing forward and have a steering wheel. My daughter LOVES that thing. Otherwise she wants to grab! all! the! things! and I have to try to keep her arm’s length away from the shelves while not being that annoying person that takes up the whole aisle with her cart.
Oh the things we mothers do to make it through those moments of chaos and frustration! Sometimes I miss being able to restrain my child in the carseat! http://notsosloth.blogspot.com/2011/08/sunday-life-saver.html I’ll admit my toddler is pretty good at the store, and I usually only make my way back to the bakery for a complimentary cookie IF he was a good boy!
Today is May, 12th, so tomorrow will be Sunday, 13th. Happy Mother Day to all the mothers who posted on this site. I read a lot of you did not like the car shopping cart that your favorite retail store provide for your children. First, I would like you to know that the first purpose of those car shopping cart is to protect your children from cart injuries. Even if some of you have a hard time to move those car carts around the store, your children are better protected from the risk of cart falling injuries when seating on a car shopping cart, because they were designed for that purpose. Car shopping carts keep children seat on a cart in front view, and of course, always with the seat belt on, to prevent them to be seated in any unsafe position which may cause a risk of cart falling injuries. I understand it is hard for some parents to watch their children while shopping but it is the joy of parenting. Actually, they are two models of car shopping cart available in the market which are respectively manufactured by McCue Corporation and RTS plastic, inc.( please, feel free to google these companies to get more information). The best and most effective car shopping cart is from RTS plastic, which keep children high from the ground, close to the handle, giving parents more control of their children while they are riding and entertained. So, mothers think about your children safety first.
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