The arrival of supermarkets

The adoption of shopping carts came just as supermarkets came onto the scene in America. In the ensuing decades, more Americans started driving and larger supermarkets with parking lots started opening in suburbs.

Yet, shoppers still carried baskets and were unlikely to stock up. In the early 1900s, a grocery chain in Texas offered carts, but it didn't gain traction as baskets were considered aristocratic. Pushing a cart around was a kind of embarrassment.