20 minutes in the life of a shopping cart

One cart’s journey@ Target in Mountain View

5:18pm-5:40pm 2/10/2010

Visual Journey of the Cart

Door

Cust Svc

cafeCheckout

5:18

5:195:20

5:22

5:35

5:40

Detailed Journey of the Cart

Door

Cust Svc

cafeCheckout

5:18pm Taken from front to Café. Parked.5:19pm Taken from Café to Pull-Ups Section. Parked5:21pm Rolled back and forth in place5:22pm Taken to Candy Aisle. Parked at end of aisle5:29pm 2 bags of candy added to front of cart

5:35 moved to checkout line. Chips added to cart. Rolled forwards.5:38 Rocked back and forth5:39 Emptied. Rolled to end of checkout. 2 bags added to front of cart.5:40pm Taken to front of store and parked where it started.

5:32pm Moved to center of candy aisle. 5:32:30 Rolled slightly forward.5:33pm 2 more bags of candy added to front. Rolled forward. 1 more bag added. Rolled 1 inch back. 1 more bag added.5:34 Cart turned around. Parked. Rocked back and forth.

Conclusion

• The life of a cart is lonely.– The cart is frequently parked in a location with a little bit of

space while the user goes off and shops.• The cart is good at entertaining.

– When the user is uncertain, or bored, the user holds onto the cart and rocks it back and forth

• The cart is underutilized. – Much of the cart’s journey happened while it was empty.– The front of the cart is used more for storage of small items

(when there aren’t children in the section) than the larger section of the cart.