Food Forum: Family affair

Shopping with infants and children is a normal part of American life and presents significant opportunities for retailers. People who shop with children represent a growing market segment that should not be overlooked. Read More

Consumers are looking for stores that cater to shoppers with infants

Shopping carts and portable infant carriers Now a safer combination thanks to the Safe-Dock^TM

Wharton, NJ.  August 27, 2012. Safe-Strap Company announces the Safe-Dock, the first universal car seat docking station for shopping carts. The Safe-Dock provides a safe place on the shopping cart to hold or more specifically “dock” the portable car seats that parents routinely bring into stores.  Earlier this year on the heels of mounting injuries and a tragic death, warnings were added to shopping carts to alert consumers not to place their personal infant carriers or car seats directly on the shopping cart.  Despite the new warnings, most parents still place their car seat atop a shopping cart.  Now with the addition of the Safe-Dock, they can continue to do so safely and conveniently. 

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, personal infant carriers and car seats falling off the cart or tipping the cart account for 5% of the 20,000 shopping cart related injuries that occur each year.   In November 2011 an infant tragically died when the infant carrier he was in fell from a shopping cart at a Georgia Supermarket.

According to Paul Giampavolo, President of Safe-Strap Company “Most personal infant carriers and car seats specifically warn against their use on shopping carts.  In fact, all carriers warn against placing them on any elevated surface.  Consumers either don’t read the warnings or mistakenly believe the practice of putting a car seat on a shopping cart is safe.  However, this practice is not safe and the publicity surrounding the recent death of an infant whose carrier fell from a cart has sparked an enormous amount of chatter in the blogs among parents warning each other not to put their carriers on carts. Many parents say to stay home and avoid shopping with an infant altogether or to place the car seat into the shopping cart basket, leaving little room for purchases”.  “Neither option is realistic,” Giampavolo added, “Most parents are simply looking for a safe and convenient solution.   Retailers are now presented with an excellent opportunity to help their customers who shop with infants.   By providing the Safe-Dock on a few carts in each store; retailers will attract parents with infants, make them feel good about the store and help them to be more relaxed while shopping so they can focus on shopping longer and buying more of what they need.”

Safe-Dock is inexpensive, comes in a variety of colors, easily attaches to any shopping cart with two U-bolts, and once attached is nestable with other carts.  

Paul Giampavolo is the leading expert on shopping cart safety.  Paul is Chairman of ASTM’s Consumer Products Executive Subcommittee which oversees all Consumer Product standard activities, Subcommittee Chairman of ASTM’s Shopping Cart Subcommittee, recipient of a Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman’s Commendation in 1996 for Significant Contributions to Product Safety, founded Safe-Strap Company in 1983 and pioneered the use of shopping cart seat belts and infant seats to help reduce shopping cart related injuries.   

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