Safer Shopping Carts

Smith’s Food and Drug is changing the way their shopping carts are designed to keep children safer.

“So the big launch is the focus on child safety in our shopping carts,” said Bruce Herbst, store director at Smith’s.

Shopping with children at any grocery store is not easy, but Monday afternoon, inside Smiths in Idaho Falls, parents with infants can now be sure their kids won’t fall out of shopping carts.

The new carts are designed with Safe Dock systems, which have car seat holders bolted into the shopping carts. Parents put the infant’s car seat inside them and children will safely stay put even if they squirm around.

“I mean you can see the baby and it’s not like you’re constantly peaking to see if he’s okay and it’s not slipping or wobbling,” said mother Kristina Loop.

The store has around eight of these special carts and even though Herbst said there have not been any major incidents at the Idaho Falls location, nationwide a recent study showed 66 kids a day end up in the emergency room for head related injuries. 70 percent of them were caused from falling out of shopping carts, and with the annual rate of concussions up by 200 percent, Smith’s decided to be proactive.

“I’d say they’re probably about 80 dollars a unit,” said Herbst.

A small price to pay, to protect the most important item in your shopping cart.

All Kroger stores- which include Fred Meyer and Albertsons will also have the new Safe Dock system on their shopping carts.