Target’s new shopping cart is built for Stanleys and Starbucks (exclusive)
It’s the three-row SUV of big-box retail. Target’s bold red shopping cart has always anchored customers inside a Target store, promising a middle-class fancy experience.
For the next few years, Target will be replacing its fleet of half a million shopping carts with an even beefier model that promises to hold more stuff while making it easier to maneuver around the store. It’s the first all-plastic design Target will launch nationwide, while paradoxically being more sustainable than Target carts of yore.
And yes, it’ll even hold your big dumb cup.
“The cart for us is the first touchpoint that the guest meets right when they walk in the store,” says Sarah Deuth, VP of store design at Target. “It’s the most used item in our store, and then also it’s that item that carries you throughout the store.”
In recent years, Target has seen its share of troubles. It has faced boycotts after reversing course on DEI, and watched its stock price tank as consumers swapped Target’s ever-so-more premium retail brand for Amazon’s ease of ordering and Walmart’s clean UX and commitment to affordability. Target’s new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, plans to turn things around by going back to the company’s roots in an affordably chic retail experience. That alone might not work.
But customer experience will always be an important differentiator in retail, and since introducing its iconic red cart in the 1970s, Target has been refining that cart’s design. Now the company is rolling out its latest version, the Series 3, informed by its last 20 years of consumer research and a few more modern trends. It’s an investment in the most literal touchpoint of shopping possible.
What’s new in Target’s shopping cart?
As Target considered the latest iteration, which it designed in-house, it focused on the one thing it had heard and observed to be the most important part of any shopping cart: how it drives.
“You’ll see guests, they’ll have their phone in one hand, beverage [in the other], and they’re pushing it with their elbows. Or they’re pushing it with one hand,” Deuth says. “We are doing a million things while we’re shopping, so maneuverability and what they called ‘ease,’ ‘smooth ride,’ and ‘a cart going straight’ was more important than anything.”
A decade ago, Target had already addressed part of this issue by swapping out its polyurethane wheels for rubber, which grips floors better. But a lot of controlling the cart has nothing to do with the wheels, casters, or bearings. If the frame bends, it stops steering predictably.
This insight led Target to reconsider its “hybrid” cart design that had been in use since 2014, which, like most shopping carts, used a metal frame—but wrapped that frame in plastic components. This seemed like a good idea: Metal is durable and plastic is durable. But metal is more prone to bending. And when fused together in Target’s shopping cart design, it was common for plastic and metal components to get misaligned at their junctions.
So Target built the Series 3 completely out of plastic (save for a few components in the wheels)—which stays rigid so the cart should always drive straight. It also has modular components that can be swapped in and out if one breaks.
Truth be told, Target dreamed of an all-plastic cart 20 years ago, with a model it crafted in 2006, but it wasn’t considered good enough to scale. Its latest cart iteration has optimized the plastic build, with geometries and ergonomics Target insists make it easier to steer. Its handles look something like Theragun grips.
Notably, the plastic used in Target’s carts is recyclable for a cart’s end of life. Also, overall, it’s more durable than the older metal designs, according to the company, which has seen cart lifespan increase two- to threefold in early testing.
No doubt about it, the cart’s thick plastic frame gives it borderline maximalist proportions, but the overall sensation that this is a bigger cart is more than a visual trick. Target increased the cart’s payload by a “slight” amount because “guest behaviors have changed,” according to Deuth.
“In some instances, they are looking to buy more bulk,” she notes, hinting at the budget-minded nature of shoppers today. “And so that was important for us to look at that average basket of the guests and design into that.”
Other creature comforts
Beyond durability and payload, the new cart is full of improved ergonomics. Anyone who has taken a child to Target knows that the child seat in front is a standout feature. Customers complained, though, that the seat’s incline was too shallow, making it hard for a child to sit up straight—while possible for them to climb out. The new version features a steeper backrest and a deeper bowl.
Around the seat, the cart now features two prominent cupholders. Before, the cupholders were nothing but round holes, designed to catch a Starbucks drink. These holes have been replaced with fully molded cupholders (complete with edges and bottoms). Their capacity is also supersized for snacks and beverages that no longer fit in a rapidly shifting drink vessel culture. And a squared-off design ensures they can accommodate cups of different shapes and sizes.
“Yes [it’s for] the Stanley Cups and the Starbucks,” says Deuth with a laugh. “Those are important, and sometimes both of those at the same time.”
Call it an SNL punch line, or call it knowing your base. In any case, Target’s new cart does seem to demonstrate the company’s ongoing obsession with its customer experience. But for Target, it’s also time to lock in on every other aspect of its retail business, too.