INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Target Pulls Kids’ Shopping Carts After Customers Call Them ‘Nightmares’ And ‘Vehicles Of Mass Destruction’

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 02:41 PST, Sep 23, 2016

According to Business Insider, Target made the decision to roll out miniature shopping carts designed to entertain children in 72 of their stores in August. The store hoped the kids’ shopping carts would keep the children entertained which, in turn, would make the shopping experience more pleasant for the parents. Target has since decided to remove the hundreds of kids’ shopping carts from their stores after customers referred to them as a “nightmare.”

StarTribune reports this isn’t the first time Target has made the decision to change a business direction after receiving negative feedback from customers via social media (and several other channels). For example, last year Target removed the gender-based signs located in the toy aisles after one mother’s tweet about a sign labeling building blocks as “for boys” or “for girls” exploded with negative feedback on Twitter.

Target has actually been testing the kids’ shopping carts for more than a year in 10 of their stores. In late August, the company decided to expand their testing to 72 stores which included 22 in New York and 50 in Minnesota.

When the expansion ended up being a “nightmare” – according to the customers – the company made the decision to pull the kids’ carts back out of the store.

https://twitter.com/IAmTimBaker/status/779092481786929152

Customers reported the kids going absolutely wild with the shopping carts. They were dumping over entire shelves of merchandise and running down the aisles and ramming the carts into other shoppers, leaving bruises on their ankles.

A mommy blogger at Laughing Without Limits referred to the kids’ shopping carts as “vehicles of mass destruction.” She went on to say the new kids’ shopping carts ruined her shopping experience at Target. She claimed to have started a movement called MASTC which stood for Moms Against Stupid Tiny Carts.

In a post on Facebook, Lizzy Charles claimed the kids’ shopping carts turned her shopping ventures to Target to “torture.” She went on to say she had three children and all three of her kids wanted their own tiny shopping cart. This resulted in three times the headache for this mother. Or worse, when her three children were fighting over one available kid’s shopping cart.

https://www.facebook.com/KimmySticks/posts/10155277121028289

Naturally, not every single shopper who shopped at the 72 Target stores that released these shopping carts had bad things to say about them. In fact, there were many parents who wrote on Target’s Facebook page thanking them for releasing the kids’ shopping carts as they did make shopping with children a little easier.

One parent claimed the kids’ shopping carts were “great for keeping the kids busy and motivated to help out.” Another parent wrote that his child had burst into an upset fit of tears when they went shopping at Target and the child realized the kids’ shopping carts were no longer there.

Unfortunately for the parents and children who enjoyed the kids’ shopping carts, the number of parents and shoppers who disliked the carts were much greater in volume. For this reason, Target did make the decision to pull the kids’ shopping carts just a few short weeks after having them available in the stores.

Target claims this is just another example of how much the company cares about their customers and values their opinion. The ultimate goal of the company being to do what they can to make the shopping experience at the store more pleasant for all customers.

“At Target, our guests are at the center of everything we do, and we value their feedback,” Target spokeswoman Kristy Welker told Business Insider. “We briefly tested kiddie carts at 72 Target stores, and after reviewing guest and stores feedback, we have made the decision to stop the test.”

Did you get a chance to test out one of the kids’ shopping carts at Target? Are you sad the company has decided to pull them from the stores? More importantly, what is the company going to do with all those kids’ carts?

[Featured Image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images]

Share this article: Target Pulls Kids’ Shopping Carts After Customers Call Them ‘Nightmares’ And ‘Vehicles Of Mass Destruction’
Target
More from Inquisitr