Cart Seeks to Facilitate Shopping With Disabled Kids

“This cart is fantastic! [It] makes shopping with our non-mobile daughter a breeze. I hope that other grocery stores realize this cart is a necessity for families that have someone with a disability.”

— Michele L. Boroughf, a parent of a disabled child in Northbrook, Ill.

Drew Ann Long takes her daughter shopping in Caroline's Cart, designed for special-needs children.

Caroline Long, age 12, has Rett syndrome, a severe neurodevelopment disorder that has left her unable to walk or use her hands since she was about 13 months old; she is unable to speak.
Her mother, Drew Ann Long, who has two other children, has tried to make Caroline feel included in everyday life activities, including grocery shopping, in their hometown of Alabaster, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham. Until Caroline was about 6, her mother would use a traditional shopping cart or a “fun cart” — the shopping carts designed to carry small children — to transport her around their local supermarket. But when Caroline outgrew those carts, Long was often left with the unwieldy task of pushing the child in her wheelchair while pushing or pulling a standard shopping cart — not a feasible option.
“I would have to find a sitter for Caroline, bring someone with me to push her wheelchair, or take her shopping with me and only purchase what I could carry while pushing her wheelchair,” Long writes on her website, www.carolinescart.com.

Drew Ann Long

Frustrated with this dilemma, Long, then a full-time mom, wondered whether there existed anywhere in the world a shopping cart that could accommodate special-needs children — and even some categories of disabled adults. After extensive research indicated that such a cart did not apparently exist, Long, with support from her husband, David, decided to invent one — what is now known as Caroline’s Cart.
Following an arduous and costly four-year process in which Long overcame a multitude of challenges — such as designing the cart, applying for patents, finding design and manufacturing partners, starting a Facebook page, and learning the retailing and manufacturing industries — her manufacturer began shipping the initial carts to retailers on Oct. 9, 2012. By sheer coincidence, that was Caroline’s 12th birthday. In mid-October, Caroline had her first experience riding in the cart; her reaction was “total excitement,” said Long.
Fueled largely by a grassroots Facebook campaign, Caroline’s Cart is now available in between 50 and 60 stores across 10 states, with interest continuing to build in the U.S. and abroad. Among the retailers currently offering one or two of the carts per store: Long’s local chain, Belle Foods, Birmingham, Ala. (in three stores); Reasor’s, Tahlequah, Okla. (17 stores); Hy-Vee, West Des Moines, Iowa (three stores); Price Chopper, Schenectady, N.Y. (three stores); Sunset Foods, Highland Park, Ill. (one store); and United Supermarkets, Lubbock, Texas (three stores). In addition to grocers, Long is targeting home improvement and general merchandise retailers.
For Long, what began as a desire to address her own personal dilemma has evolved into a commitment to helping other families in her position — a significant segment of the U.S. population. “I decided this was just a huge unmet need, and needed to be addressed,” she said. “If a retailer is going to provide a fun cart as a convenience item [for children who can walk], what about the huge underserved population that doesn’t walk? We had no options, so this had to be done.”

Overall, of the 53.9 million school-aged children (aged 5 to 17) in the U.S. in 2010, about 2.8 million (5.2%) were reported to have a disability — including ambulatory, self-care, vision and hearing difficulties — that may require special accommodations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition to Rett syndrome, the particular childhood disabilities Caroline’s Cart can accommodate include autism, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome, as well as adult afflictions like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Long has inspired interest in Caroline’s Cart among consumers — many of whom have asked their food retailers to offer it — via a Facebook page (Facebook.com/CarolinesCart), which had 6,653 fans last week. “I knew if I could get this cart in the hands of moms and dads who live with a special-needs child, it would drive demand,” she said.
For Todd Hartley, district manager of Belle Foods, whose youngest son has cerebral palsy, stores with Caroline’s Cart are creating a place for families with special-needs children that “welcomes them and wants them to come shop,” he said in a video about Caroline’s Cart.