When Chantal Martin and her family go to the supermarket, they often find it difficult to keep track of their seven-year-old son.
Their son, Nicholas, has Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes physical and cognitive differences. In particular, he has problems with his eyesight.
“He often runs into things that are right in front of him that you would assume he can see, but he doesn’t,” Martin said. “He’s very distracted and curious and just walks away.”
Nicholas has outgrown the child seat in traditional shopping carts, so he can’t sit in them. The problem is that it often escapes.
“We have gone through the emergency exits and activated the alarms,” he said. “It’s melted in the aisles…sometimes we just head straight to the car and don’t do the shopping.”
Now, after advocating for local grocery stores to incorporate special carts designed for people with disabilities, some stores have stepped in to help families like Martin’s.
Carolina’s cart
Earlier this month, Martin was the first person to take one of these special carts, called Caroline’s Cart, for a spin at the local Real Canadian Superstore. He also used one at the local Walmart. In an email to CBC News in November, one of the Save-On-Foods locations confirmed it had ordered a cart.
Caroline’s Cart was developed by Drew Ann Long in Alabaster, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.
Their daughter Caroline was born with Rett syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects brain development. He can’t walk, and as he grew older, he couldn’t fit into strollers, making trips to the grocery store difficult for Long. Finding no alternatives to shopping carts through her research, she developed a concept for a special cart herself.
The idea went from a drawing on a napkin around 2009, Long said, to being available in stores in about four years.
The stroller is like a traditional stroller, but it eliminates the spot where toddlers typically sit and replaces it with a larger seat that holds up to 250 pounds and has a five-point safety harness.
Now, Long says he has sold thousands of carts; They are in all Walmarts in the United States.
‘Makes shopping possible’
Long said the carts meant her family had the freedom to shop as they pleased without having to hire a babysitter in advance.
“It allows families and children who didn’t have the ability to be in the community before,” he said. “It makes shopping possible for families like mine.”
In Kamloops, Nicholas’s 11-year-old sister, Janaie, says having access to the carts means she and her mother don’t chase him around the store.
“Sometimes he wants to go outside, but generally he can still stay in the stroller and is fine if we give him something to play with,” she said.
“We usually have to keep him busy at home when Mom or Dad is making dinner. The same goes for when they’re shopping. So it’s nice to have him in the cart and we can chat.”
Spending that time between mother and daughter is “a turning point,” Martin said.
Martin hopes this will encourage Loblaws and other big chains to bring the carts to all of their stores nationwide so that families in a similar situation can shop for groceries more easily.
In an emailed statement, Kamloops Real Canadian Superstore manager Mike Banh said there are now two of the carts in his store, which are being used by several customers.
“Real Canadian Superstore is a people-first business and we are very proud to support our local community here in Kamloops in any way we can,” Banh said.
Long said he would like to see Walmart Canada bring carts across the country, just like its American counterpart has done.
In an email sent to CBC in November, Walmart Canada said Caroline’s Carts are available in select stores nationwide and can be ordered by managers.
