Kids in Carts

May 5, 2004 - Kids in Carts

In case you haven’t heard, next Sunday is Mother’s Day. For those of you who are gift-challenged, that means there are only 4 shopping days remaining. For those of you who have bad memories, your mom is the person who gave birth to you (hours and hours of labor), fed you and bathed you and changed your diapers, etc, etc. She did a lot of things and continues to do so. The least you can do is buy her a little present on the day established to honor her. Sure, it’s a Hallmark holiday designed to get you to buy more cards, flowers, and pink slippers, but if you ignore it you will be in the doghouse for a very long time. And, your mom isn’t getting any younger you know. You probably should visit her more often. You should take her some flowers and maybe out to dinner. Maybe get her a massage and clean her house while she is out.

How many hours of labor was it? Maybe you should buy her a cruise to the Bahamas, or a new car, or a new house. Do you know she would jump in front of a train for you? You should probably start thinking about getting her some grandkids, or more grandkids. You know she wanted to spoil you, but couldn’t because she wanted you to grow up to be a good person (like you are). What a sacrifice it was! But if she had grandkids … she’d have no problem spoiling them! So, you probably should get to it. And get a good job while you’re at it. Your mom’s best friend’s children grew up to be very successful. You should aspire to be successful yourself … preferably more successful. How many hours of labor was it?

Yesterday the dedicated staff of edhat.com went out to find some of today’s young moms. For some reason, we thought we would find them at the grocery stores. Actually, we know why we thought that. It was because the day before as we waited in front of Trader Joe’s for BJs Towing to tow our ailing green car to the mechanic, we witnessed oodles of blond moms stroll their toddlers into the store to buy inexpensive milk and stuff. The entryway to Trader Joes looked like a Gymboree meet-up. So, because of that we decided to count kids in shopping carts – how many moms had kids and how many dads.

On Tuesday the dedicated staff hit all the major grocery stores in Goleta: Albertsons, Albertsons, Ralph’s, Vons, and Trader Joe’s. We went to them in the afternoon. At Ralphs, we saw a mom pushing a cart that was made up to look like a race car. At Albertsons on Calle Real, we saw a mom pushing a cart with 3 kids hanging on it (both inside and out) like monkeys at the zoo. At Vons, there were no kids in carts, but there was a kid in a stroller with a basket balanced on it.

Overall, there weren’t too many kids … until we got to Trader Joes that is! And there we found many young moms. In fact, 29% of the women pushing carts in Trader Joe’s were also pushing kids. So, that’s where the moms hangout. All those hours of labor and they are drinking two buck chuck? You’d better get them a good present on Sunday!

And who is taking the kids shopping? Well, on all of grocery store visits, we found 3 times as many women pushing carts as men, but we only saw one Dad with kid. Not to judge, or stereotype, or anything, but the only thing he had in his cart besides his son were 2 twelve packs of beer.

Overall 10.5% of carts pushed by women had kids in them, compared to 3.6% for men. Dedicated subscriber Lemony was the closest with a guess of 11% and 2%. Lemony will cart away a prize of either movie tickets or edhat t-shirt. We’re not kiddin’.

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