The provision of baby carriers on shopping carts is well known. Such carriers have proved popular with shoppers who would otherwise have to carry small children throughout the store or else place them in the basket of the shopping cart, thereby reducing the effective capacity of the cart to hold items to be purchased.
Many conventional shopping carts provide a baby carrier as an integral structural part of the cart, as is illustrated for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,116,456 and 3,350,136. These constructions have proved very satisfactory for their intended purpose, however, it is frequently the case that a shopper will have more than one child and would like to have a place in the cart to put the second child.
A detachable seat suitable for supporting a second child is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,836. Detachable child carriers of this type have adequately fulfilled their intended purposes, but have not proved entirely satisfactory in all respects. For example, the location of the carrier on the cart often makes its use somewhat awkward for both the shopper and the child. Further, such carriers often necessitate a modification of the cart to provide openings for the child's legs or to effect a secure attachment of the carrier to the cart.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a child carrier which may be detachably mounted to a shopping cart or similar wheel-supported vehicle at a location where the shopper may conveniently place the child or additional groceries in the carrier, such location preferably being at the front end of the cart.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a child carrier, as aforesaid, which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, and can be stacked in a nested manner with similar units for storage.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a child carrier, as aforesaid, which does not necessitate structural modifications of the cart to which it is to be attached, and which is maintained in a substantially level disposition when detachably mounted to a sloping wall of a shopping cart.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds