The shopping trolley was a flop at first

In 1937, Sylvan Goldman, owner of a supermarket chain in Oklahoma, had an idea to make people buy more: a folding chair on wheels holding two baskets. The shopping trolley was born. And it flopped.

Men rejected it: pushing one struck them as unmanly, perfectly capable as they were of carrying their baskets. Many women didn't want it either — it reminded them of a pram, and they pushed enough of those already.

Goldman didn't give up. He hired men and women to wheel full trolleys around his stores, posing as delighted customers, and placed greeters at the door offering one to everybody. It worked. The invention made him a millionaire and changed retail forever.

The uncomfortable lesson: the trolley didn't win because it was useful, but through imitation. We shop the way other people shop — even when we're sure we don't.