Keeping carts in check

PETER BUFFA

Everything old is new again. It’s an old saying. It’s a song. But

it’s also the truth. One of the odd things about being a

tyrannosaurus mayorus is that what might be a hot issue to others is

like a re-run of “The Edge of Night” to you.

At the moment, the Costa Mesa city council is engaged in mano a

mano combat with shopping carts, or to be specific, abandoned

shopping carts. A tossed-aside shopping cart on a street corner, or

worse yet, someone’s lawn looks bad and makes everything around it

look even badder.

Abandoned shopping carts elevate people’s blood pressure, increase

their heart rate, upset their digestive processes and generally place

them in a highly-agitated state. If it’s any consolation to the fine

people in the big swivel chairs at City Hall, you are not alone.

Every city that has at least one supermarket and at least two

shopping carts feels your pain. I know I do. We had shopping cart fun

twice during my tenure. Twice we thought we had the wiry little

beasts cornered, but they kept sneaking out of their parking lots at

all hours of the day and night and turning up in places where a

decent, well-bred cart wouldn’t be caught dead.

The city’s current cart containment campaign went into effect on

Sept. 1. In just one month, 740 carts have been spotted, stalked and

captured. Impressive, no? A private company runs the offending carts

to ground seven days a week and returns them to their owners, but not

before recording the store from whence they came. A store gets five

free passes in a 12-month period then the city whacks them with a

$150 fine for every cart that’s busted for being wheeled and

disorderly in public.

Wait, I have an idea. If the store has to cough up $150 per cart,

how about taking anyone who is found attached to a shopping cart

that’s been swiped from a store only to be dumped on the street and

branding the word idiot on their forehead with a hot iron. Is that

too much? I guess. But I suspect it would cut the number of abandoned

carts way down.

Do you know what’s missing in all this? I’ll tell you what’s

missing in all this. It’s the kind of important, inside information

that you can find right here and nowhere else. We use them all the

time, but how many people know where the humble little shopping cart

comes from? Very few, I think.

It all started in 1937, in Oklahoma City, which is in Oklahoma. A

man named Sylvan Goldman owned a chain of markets called “Humpty

Dumpty Supermarkets,” which were named for Humpty Dumpty. Sylvan

Goldman was a smart man. He watched his customers day after day, hour

after hour. One day, he noticed something odd. It’s hard to carry a

lot of stuff, especially heavy stuff.

“Would you look at that,” Sylvan said to one of his checkers.

“It’s hard to carry a lot of stuff, especially heavy stuff.”

“Well, I’ll be go to hell, Mr. G,” said the checker. “I think

you’re right.”

Enthused with his discovery, Sylvan grabbed a wooden chair in his

office, put wheels on the legs and mounted a wire basket on the seat.

A few adjustments here, a few refinements there, and the modern-day,

wire frame shopping cart was born. They were a big hit and everybody

loved them, right? Not exactly.

Oklahoma is one of those states where men are men and women are

women. The men thought the new carts were for sissy-girlie boys, and

the women thought pushing a piece of machinery around in public was

something a lady just wouldn’t do.

Goldman did not give up. And in one of the earliest strokes of

marketing genius, he hired men and women of all ages to pose as

customers and stroll around his stores with shopping carts. He also

put a greeter at the front door (take that, Wal-Mart) to invite

customers to try the new carts and explain how to use them, which

begs the question, which part were they confused about?

Goldman soon formed the Folding Cart Co. and by 1940, every market

wanted them, but the waiting list was 5 years long.

Here’s an interesting footnote.

Is there anything more common than shopping carts?

How about parking meters?

Do you know who invented the parking meter? I’ll tell you.

The parking meter was invented in 1935 by a man named Carl C.

Magee -- of Oklahoma City, Okla.

Magee filed for a patent on a “coin-controlled parking meter” on

May 13, 1935, and the first parking meters were installed in Oklahoma

City on July 16, 1935. How weird is that?

Two long-forgotten men invented two common devices used around the

world within two years of each other, in Oklahoma City.

Today, there are about 5 million parking meters in the U.S., and

35 million shopping carts. That’s a lot.

Any other important issues we need to cover? I guess not. And

that’s the story of the shopping cart. It has served us well for

almost 70 years. Show a little respect. I gotta go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs

Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at ptrb4@aol.com.