Huntsville Cheers as Caroline’s Cart Rolls into Local Business

Alycia Simmons (left), co-owner for Bullock’s Your Independent Grocer, Emily Kerns, Family Support Worker for Community Living Huntsville, and Emily Kouyoumjian, Resource Consultant for Community Living Huntsville, celebrate the arrival of Huntsville’s first Caroline’s Cart. Photos by Community Living Huntsville.

A Huntsville business’s new shopping cart sparked swift and passionate reaction on social media.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” said Leslie Aubin. “It will be so much easier to take my son shopping with my now.”

“Oh, my goodness. Thank you for this. This has been a concern for me as my son gets older and doesn’t fit in the baby seat anymore,” said Leah Reeder. “You have no idea how helpful this will be for our family.”

Bullock’s Your Independent Grocer announced through its Facebook page on May 9, 2024, that its newly purchased Caroline’s Cart had officially rolled into the store. This modified shopping cart features a full-sized, caregiver-facing seat, an extra set of wheels for easy maneuverability, and plenty of space remaining for products, creating for a more disability-inclusive shopping experience for older children, adults, and older adults with disabilities, and their families and support workers.

While there were Caroline’s Carts in other communities, including Bracebridge and North Bay, this was the first one in Huntsville.

The announcement on Facebook earned 124 reactions, 10 comments, and 27 shares in a matter of hours.

Darcy Bullock and Alycia Simmons, co-owners for Bullock’s Your Independent Grocer, said the decision to purchase the cart was easy to make once Community Living Huntsville brought it to their attention.

“I hope it makes a difference for our customers and the community,” said Bullock.

Simmons added that she hoped the cart made the shopping experience easier and more inclusive. “I hope it helps and makes it easier for people and families to shop together,” she said. “Kudos to Community Living for making us aware.”

Emily Kouyoumjian, a Resource Consultant with Community Living Huntsville, said a mom approached our not-for-profit organization’s Children and Youth Services team about the need for Caroline’s Carts in Huntsville: “She has an older child, who cannot walk around a store because of severe medical and mobility needs, which leaves mom struggling to push a wheelchair and a shopping cart at the same time while doing all the shopping at a grocery store or a department store,” said Kouyoumjian. “That makes what some would think of as a quick errand – popping into the grocery store for a few items – feel physically and emotionally difficult and exhausting.”

She noted the family was far from alone in its experience. Roughly 27 per cent of Canadians identify as having a disability and, when their families and caregivers are considered, roughly 53 per cent of consumers are directly affected by disability.

Kouyoumjian said she and her colleague, Emily Kerns, a Family Support Worker with Community Living Huntsville, started advocating for the carts soon after the family reached out. The team drafted a letter, which described the cart and laid out its business benefits, and then started contacting some of the larger retailers in the community. After an in-person meeting with Bullock’s Your Independent Grocer, the store immediately ordered its cart.

Another business ordered a cart as well, and it was expected to arrive later in 2024.

“These carts are not just for children – they can also assist an adult with a disability to come shopping with a family member or a support worker,” said Kouyoumjian. She envisioned an older adult with mobility or cognitive disability able to move through a store with their spouse, the couple able to face each other thanks to the cart’s design, discussing what items to put in their cart. “Shopping is part of every-day life, and being included in both the experience and the decisions is really empowering,” she said. “These carts are about social and community inclusion as much as they are about physical accessibility.”

Kouyoumjian hoped more businesses would build on this momentum and offer Caroline’s Carts and other enhanced accessibility features, like ramps, for their customers into the future: “Even a single step into a business can be a huge barrier,” she said.

She added that the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act had a deadline for certain accessibility standards to be met in Ontario by 2025: “There is a lot left to be done,” said Kouyoumjian.

Emily Kouyoumjian, Resource Consultant for Community Living Huntsville, says accessible shopping experiences are a step in the right direction toward a more inclusive community for everyone.