Me, myself, I...

The humble shopping trolley.

Too often seen as a nuisance.

Clogging up our canals and rivers. Our streets. Our car parks.

Getting in the way.

But the shopping trolley as we come to know and love it, transformed the way we shop

But its success was not guaranteed.

It made its first appearance in 1937 in America in a supermarket chain owned by supermarket mogul, Sylvan Goldman.

He set out to solve a simple problem-how to get his customers to buy more than they could carry in a hand basket?

‘When the housewife got her basket full’, he once said ‘it was too heavy for her to carry and she stopped shopping,…..I thought if there was some way we could give the customer two baskets to shop with and still have one hand free to shop, we could do considerably more business.'

His first attempt based on a folding chair with wheels, could carry two baskets and could be rolled through the aisles.

He patented the design as the ‘No Basket Carrying Plan’.

The design with the rear swinging door came later.

And this design was acquired by Goldman and still forms the basic design for today’s shopping trolley.

The royalties from these designs and patents made Goldman a very rich man.

But when the trolleys first made their appearance in Goldman’s stores, they were ignored. Women refused to give up their hand baskets.

Women saw them as baby prams. And were offended.

‘I have pushed my last pram’, they complained.

And they offended men who found them effeminate.

For them it was a sign of manly strength to be able to carry round a fully loaded hand basket.

It took a careful understanding of human psychology to change attitude and behaviour.

And Goldman’s persistence.

He appealed to the ego of his shoppers.

By hiring fake shoppers, male and female, to use the trolleys in his stores, looking handsome and happy while they did it.

It worked.

And the shopping trolley was a success.

Because we all seek a positive self-image for ourselves.

We all want to feel good about ourselves.

This is why male respondents donate more to charity when approached by attractive female fundraisers.

Because we want to project and maintain a positive self-image in the eyes of the opposite sex.

And if we think we will be happier and better looking using a shopping trolley, of course we will fall for it.

It helps us make us feel good about ourselves.

Ego is a powerful motivator of behaviour. And can help consumers buy.

No man or woman likes to look bad.

We all want to look good in the eyes of ourselves, our family, our friends.

We all want to do the right thing.

And that must work no matter what we are buying. From cars to baked beans to financial services.

Even when it comes to using a shopping trolley.