Shopping cart with assembly for vehicle storage
View Patent ↗A shopping cart has a basket having left and right sides, a floor, a rear wall and a front wall and has a handlebar. Squeezing the handlebar and moving it down causes a front wheel assembly to rotate from a down position in which the front wheels contact the ground toward a storage position in which the front wheels are positioned adjacent or above the floor. A rear wheel assembly is rotatable from a down position in which the rear wheels contact the ground to a storage position in which the rear wheels are positioned at or behind the rear wall. After positioning the loaded shopping cart adjacent a trunk vehicle, slide the cart and rotate the front and rear wheel assemblies, which may be lockable, to get the cart into the trunk for storage during transportation home. Reverse the process once home. The cart basket collapses into two dimensions for closet storage.
1. A method, comprising:
squeezing a handlebar of a shopping cart having a basket, the basket including a floor and a rear wall, a front wheel assembly of the shopping cart including front wheels and a rear wheel assembly of the shopping cart including rear wheels;
moving the handlebar downward to rotate the front wheels from a down position in which the front wheels contact a ground toward a storage position in which the front wheels are positioned adjacent or above the floor of the basket;
positioning the shopping cart onto a floor of a vehicle trunk so that a portion of the floor of the basket forward of the front wheel assembly rests on the floor of the vehicle trunk;
sliding the basket further into the trunk past a point at which a front of the front wheel assembly bumps into a rear of the vehicle;
rotating the front wheel assembly further to the storage position in which the front wheels are positioned adjacent or above the floor of the basket;
moving the shopping cart so that the baskets slides further into the trunk; and
rotating the rear wheel assembly from a down position in which the rear wheels contact the ground to a storage position in which the rear wheels are positioned at or behind the rear wall.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein moving the shopping cart so that the basket slides further into the trunk involves moving the shopping cart until a front of the rear wheel assembly contacts the rear of the vehicle.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a momentum of the sliding of the basket into the vehicle trunk past the point at which the front of the front wheel assembly contacts the rear of the vehicle urges the rotation of the front wheel assembly from the down position to the storage position.
4. A method, comprising:
loading a shopping cart that has a basket that includes a floor, a rear wall, a front wall, a handlebar, a front wheel assembly that includes front wheels and a rear wheel assembly that includes rear wheels;
positioning the shopping cart onto a floor of a vehicle trunk so that a portion of the floor of the basket forward of the front wheel assembly rests on the floor of the vehicle trunk;
sliding the basket into the trunk near a point at which a front of the front wheel assembly contacts a rear of the vehicle;
by squeezing the handlebar and moving the handlebar down and forward rotating the front wheel assembly from a down position in which the front wheels contact a ground towards a storage position in which the front wheels are positioned adjacent or above the floor of the basket;
sliding the basket further into the trunk; and
rotating the rear wheel assembly from a down position in which the rear wheels contact the ground to a storage position in which the rear wheels are positioned at or behind the rear wall.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising storing the entire shopping cart in the trunk of the vehicle.
6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising collapsing the basket so that the basket has a further reduced overall thickness.