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I am a stay at home mom of two small boys. Like a lot of stay-at-home moms, I am limited to what stores are \”accessable to me\” by a number of things. Things like the width of store aisles, the ease of parking, helpfulness of employees, and the size and maneuverability of the available shopping carts are all a factor in where I can and can’t go.

Like so many other American households, I do the majority of the shopping. Not sure if this is fair or not, but irrelevant in my case as it’s a fact. As so many others, I bring my children along. Which stores to shop is truly based on the factors I mentioned above and play a much larger role than some may think. For example, I have an appointment at a beauty supply store later this morning. The aisles and lack of availability of shopping carts will limit the time I am willing to spend inside the store.

I believe this is true for alot of stay at home moms with children. The inability to maneuver through a store may keep them from visiting the store all together or may limit their shopping to specific items only. This means less money will be spent and limited \”impulse buys\”. All in the attempt to avoid a public melt down by either mom or the kids.

Of the various factors, maybe the most important one is the shopping cart. For me to shop at a store and possibly linger versus simply getting the specific items I seek, the shopping cart needs to be wide enough to securely place a car seat or infant carrier inside without the feeling of the possibility that the cart may topple over.

The ideal shopping cart for a small business should be light and sturdy, not heavy and bulky. It should be large enough for the items provided by the store yet easily maneuvered through the aisles without difficulty and creating frustration.

There have been a number of times I have left a store out of sheer frustration and not being able to maneuver smoothly through the aisles. The shopping cart for the small businesses in question were either too large, had difficult to move wheels, or the aisles were too cramped to get around to where I needed. My frustration level would go up as I would try to navigate, and generally I end up leaving sooner, rather than later, and make every effort in the future to avoid that particular store.

Having a shopping cart large enough for a small business can sometimes be an issue. There is a fine line between convenience of the shopper, and making the cart too large to be able to smoothly transition to different areas of the store. I personally need a cart which is large enough to also allow a five-year-old to sit in the basket with whatever items I am purchasing. This makes it tricky for a small business. A lot of times small businesses are limited on space, and don’t have the option of wide aisles for their inventory. There has to be a good balance of both to make it convenient for a person to shop.

To put so much emphasis on the shopping cart may seem silly, but it’s necessary. There is one particular store which I have had to avoid until my child was big enough to sit up on his own. The stores carts would not accomodate my infant carrier. For my small business, I would make sure to provide a shopping cart that was light weight, probably plastic, sturdy, free turning wheels, wide enough for an infant carrier to be secure and possibly allow for a second child inside. It would be the appropraite size based on the overall size of the store, the products sold at the store and the width of the aisles. This would ensure its ability to maneuver throughout the store and would allow for customers to linger and spend more time, hence spend more money.

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