Dear Whomever Designs Shopping Carts:
When I go to the grocery store, I usually have my five-month-old daughter with me. In her car seat. Did you know that her car seat doesn’t fit in the top of most shopping carts? Yeah, it’s true. Try it sometime. And since, you know, she’s not sitting up on her own yet, the car seat is a must.
Because her seat doesn’t fit in the top portion of the shopping cart, I have to put her seat in the spacious bottom part of the grocery cart. You know, the place where all the groceries go. This, as you can imagine, severely limits the amount of groceries I can put in my shopping cart. Which limits the amount of money I spend in your store. Since I’m willing to bet that moms do the majority of grocery store shopping trips, I sincerely think SOMEONE at the top should look into redesigning shopping carts to accommodate car seats better.
Until then, I buy less (which is certainly better for me, not necessarily you) or send The Husband. And you KNOW how much men like grocery shopping. With kids.
Signed,
A Frustrated Mom
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
nicely written!
My local supermarket has the carts with the built in baby seats, perfect for little one’s like Maddie.
SIL
Ah…this was a frustration I remember very well. I used to stick my oldest, who was then 2, in the top section of the cart and the car seat down in the big section. While he was usually asleep, the poor little one was surrounded by food. I would stick what ever I could in there, being careful not to wake him, or crush him! People would always ask me where the little one was, and I would point him out. There he is…underneath the grapes and behind the potato chip bag! :o)
Mrs. Ergul – thank you.
SIL – if they’re the ones I think they are, some of our stores have them too but a) they’re really hard plastic and not very comfortable and b) when I think of all the kids that had their germs all over it, I’d need an awful lot of sanitizer ;)
Pamela – Exactly! When I went over the weekend, she was so buried, I was holding my breath that she wouldn’t wake up. As Nicholas says, “good times, good times.” :)
Hmmm, looks like an invention in the making! I’ve seen some groceries that have the built in seat too though I’d be scared of germs as well!
I don’t know of any shopping cat that fits a car seat, haven’t seen one yet…heheh didn’t even know there was such a thing.
If you open the part where the child is supposed to sit, and rest the car seat on it it will actually snap in between and it is unable to move. That way she is right at eye level to see you and you can shop.
It sounds weird but it worked for me…..
momof a crazy 2 year old boy…..
Here in Canada, or at least Ottawa, most of our stores are made so that the car set clips over top of the part where the seat is for slightly older children. When you put the car seat on it, you can hear it clip on and when you look from the side, you can see how it has clipped, using the latch that is built into the car seat. We also have larger carts that have a top section built behind the seat portion (which can hold 2 kids) and then a lower basket. The car seat sits in the top part side ways so you can have a sleeping baby in their seat and still have two kids in the cart and a bottom to fill with groceries.
Email me at allthingsedible@hotmail if you want me to take a picture for you.
Jenny
I also was able at *most* places to open the top section of the cart and snap the carseat in. In some cases the seat actually fit better sideways, but then it wasn’t snapped onto the seat which always made me a bit nervous, and in the worst cases as you describe, the seat had to go where the groceries were supposed to go! My daughter loves to ride in the seat now that she can sit up, but I do miss the days when she was asleep and I could take her right along with me in her carseat!
Shelby, Jenny & Steph – I know exactly what you mean. Some car seats have almost like a notch in the bottom where they fit nicely in the top part. Not, of course, the car seat that we have. In Target’s cart, the top portion opens up wide enough, that while it doesn’t fit completely, I can wedge the seat in enough that it’s ok. The grocery stores? Forget it, unfortunately. :) At least, in a few months, she’ll be able to sit up on her own and it won’t be an issue. Just surprised that no one has thought of this when designing shopping carts … especially since they thought enough of them to design those crazy-big ones with the cars in front, you know? :)