Story Archive

Just Like Their Parents Act

The retail chain Target has ended its “expanded pilot program” which tested giving miniature shopping carts to young children who accompanied parents while shopping — Target’s primary demographic. The trial was apparently successful at first: 10 stores had them for a year, and many parents seemed to have really liked them. But after only a few weeks after expanding the program — to 50 stores in Minnesota and 22 in New York — overwhelming complaints forced early cancellation: children got “carried away” with the carts, racing down aisles, putting merchandise in the carts that parents had no interest in buying, and driving the carts into other shoppers. So where are the carts now? In storage “while Target figures out what to do with them.” (RC/Minneapolis Star-Tribune) ...Well duh: sell them!