# That thing you put the food in at the store . . What do you call it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 12, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131 "2006-02-12T18:47:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/61 "2006-02-13T18:21:10Z")
I use (and my company uses) cart. However, I have also heard them called [ul][li]wagon[/li][li]buggy[/li][li]carriage[/li][li]trolley[/li][li]basket[/ul][/li] with the word “shopping” in front of any of them except carriage and basket. Most of the locals here prefer cart with buggy trailing a distant second, but the tourists are all over the place with which word to use. You see, I believe strongly in using the word cart, mainly because it’s the shortest of available options and I say it a lot. Moreover, a basket is the green thing with handles that you carry around the store. ---
**Author:** ![meanoldman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@meanoldman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meanoldman)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/62 "2006-02-14T05:15:59Z")
Grocery store foodstuffs? I put them in my pockets. Or mouth if I’m in the produce aisle. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/63 "2006-02-14T05:28:25Z")
The inventor, Sylvan N. Goldman, referred to it as a shopping cart. There’s a statue of him in a local museum, by the way-- bronze-- pushing one of his inventions. He was a local grocer who invented the cart, then had to hire people to push them around his store until the real customers felt less funny about using them. He used a share of the profits from his invention to fund the Oklahoma Blood Institute. So, when you use a shopping cart, you’re indirectly saving people’s lives. 😉 Corr ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/64 "2006-02-14T06:48:04Z")
Steve. Unless it is one of those new fancy plastic ones. Then I call it Ronny. I like to be on a first name basis with my modern conveniences. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/65 "2006-02-14T07:19:08Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > Never heard them called that. We call it a trolly. Yes, but we English spell it trolley. :o (sorry!) We also have the expression ‘off his trolley’, meaning bonkers\*. \*err, = mad. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/66 "2006-02-14T08:41:44Z")
Trolley in the south of the UK (in the whole of the UK, I think, although some regions might call it a basket). I have a feeling that the retail industry here has a widel-used technical term for it, but I can’t recall it at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/67 "2006-02-14T08:45:12Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Trolley in the south of the UK (in the whole of the UK, I think, although some regions might call it a basket). > > I have a feeling that the retail industry here has a widel-used technical term for it, but I can’t recall it at the moment. Comestibles Conveyance Vehicle? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/68 "2006-02-14T09:30:50Z")
I’m sure it’s a single-syllable word, like _cart_, but not actually ‘cart’. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/69 "2006-02-14T10:07:11Z")
Trundler. ---
**Author:** ![Butterscotch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Butterscotch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Butterscotch)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/70 "2006-02-14T18:22:13Z")
It’s a trolley! Or shopping trolley/supermarket trolley. I thought that when Americans said ‘buggy’ it refered to the thing you push small children around in when they are too small/tired to walk.[FONT=Comic Sans MS] ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/71 "2006-02-14T18:24:24Z")
Another shopping cart driver here. Take a look at [this](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11343972/from/RSS/) article about cart/buggy/trolley handles. The research was done in South Korea, but it all makes sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/72 "2006-02-14T19:05:02Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Now, _that’s_ the FUN question! > > I’ll start with > > Four-wheel wheelbarrow > Trundle > Motorless racer > Kid hauler Grocery Gitter Actually, that is what we called our grandmother’s stationwagons (she always had one) when we were kids. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/73 "2006-02-14T23:19:53Z")
Satan’s Wobbly Ball-Dolly. (I’m a hand-basket man.) ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131/74 "2006-02-15T01:44:40Z")
> [@Dryfreeze](#): > > After taking a look at that survey, I can not possible think what the “other” choices might be . . . These days I’m most likely to refer to them as carts or shopping carts, but growing up (in St. Louis, Missouri), we called them shopping baskets, or just plain baskets. And yes, I mean the [big metal ones](http://www.helmholtz.de/en/Publications/Shopping_basket.html) on wheels, not just the hand-held ones, which would’ve fallen under the “other” category on that survey, since it wasn’t presented as an option. > [@Avarie537](#): > > Take a look at [this](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11343972/from/RSS/) article about cart/buggy/trolley handles. The research was done in South Korea, but it all makes sense to me. Some of our stores have started providing those pop-up anti-bacterial wipes on stands right next to the carts for wiping down the handles before use, which is really nice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-thing-you-put-the-food-in-at-the-store-what-do-you-call-it/344131.md?page=3)