Review and Giveaway: Cart-Stopper

Through the past almost eight (gasp!) years, three babies, and a myriad of various shopping trips to everywhere from the grocery store, the mall, and everywhere in between – one fear that I’ve never quite been able to erase is the scenario where I pull my shopping cart (or stroller) up to the van and begin to unload it, only to have the cart (or stroller) suddenly begin to roll away into the parking lot while my back is turned.

Probably not an uncommon fear, right? Some parking lots are really very sloped, and I’ve been known to try and unload the cart with one hand while trying to hang on to it with the other. Added to this fear, is the (unfortunately nowadays) not-so-unlikely one where some stranger simply walks up while my hands are full and/or back is turned and walks away with not only the cart, but my precious child(ren) as well.

Now thankfully, none of these fears have come true for me, but that certainly doesn’t stop the fact that either scenario is possible, or even likely to happen if a close eye (or hand) isn’t kept on the cart or stroller at all times. But now it’s even easier to keep your little one(s) safe and close by – with a Cart-Stopper.

What it is:

The Cart-Stopper is a really simple idea – it’s a suction cup that attaches to your vehicle, with a handle that easily fits onto a shopping cart to securely fasten it and keep it in place.

The handle is made from a heavy-duty plastic and attaches via a short ‘bungee’ type cord to allow for a bit of ‘give’, while remaining firmly attached to both vehicle and cart. And both the suction cup and handle are easily removable when no longer needed.

This product was invented by a mom, who had the unthinkable actually happen to her – a shopping cart containing her young son rolled away, into traffic and hit a car waiting for a parking space. Unable to find anything already on the market to securely keep a shopping cart close by, she invented the Cart-Stopper™. It’s available in three different colors – red, pink and blue, and was recently awarded “America’s Best New Invention” by ORCA – not to mention being a finalist in the ‘JPMA Innovation Award’ contest at the recent ABC Kids Expo in Vegas.

Thanks to the Family Review Network, I received a Cart-Stopper in red to try out for myself.

Here’s my take on it:

As I said, this is a product that I would have loved to have on hand all of these years when my kids were small and all riding in shopping carts. Just the peace of mind that it brings lets you unload your purchases without having to rush and/or attempt to hold onto the cart yourself.

My youngest is three years old and still rides in the cart on most shopping trips, since she’s at that age where it’s almost impossible for her to keep up with me – and stay with me – while we’re shopping. And given that she’s 30+ pounds, any kind of little slope in the parking lot is likely to get the cart rolling, even when it’s empty of anything else.

The Cart-Stopper is extremely easy to use – the suction cup sticks very well onto the side of our minivan (even when it’s ahem, not terribly clean). And the handle simply passes through the bars or holes in the side of the cart itself and then you rotate it to lie flat against the cart’s side so it’s unable to slide back out until you fold it and bring it back through yourself.

I love that the product is not only small, but the bungee cord allows it to easily be folded to fit into a purse or diaper bag. And I can not only unload my bags from the cart, but walk around to the other side of my van if necessary, and help get my older children inside, without having to keep an eye or hand on the cart.

The bottom line:

A Cart-Stopper is one of those products that should be a must-have in every parent’s arsenal of ‘essential’ baby gear. For safety and peace of mind purposes, it’s certainly much more practical than many of the other ‘urgently needed’ things I thought we ‘had to have’ when my kids were small. And it’s definitely something that I will keep on hand as long as any of my kids are still riding in carts – and will be giving to new or expectant moms as baby shower gifts as well.

Where can you find it?:

You can purchase Cart-Stoppers directly from their website at http://www.mylilmonkeys.com/store.html – they cost $9.99 each.

Would you like to try it?:

Courtesy of the Family Review Network and Cart-Stopper, I have the opportunity to give away a Cart-Stopper to a lucky reader! If you’d like the peace of mind that this product brings for your own shopping trips (or to give as a gift), here are the rules:

1. Enter by visiting the Cart-Stopper site and leaving a comment here to let me know if you’ve ever had a scary or ‘uh-oh’ moment with your kids in a shopping cart. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Wednesday, April 8th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. US and Canadian entries only, please.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
• Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
• Either Twitter about, ‘Stumble’, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site(s) you chose (one extra entry per method).

So that’s a total of 7 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #3 as the winner:

Congratulations to Staci A who said, “We haven’t had any majors oops moments, but I’m sure I look pretty silly trying to unload the cart with one foot hooked behind the wheel while I try to get everything into the car. We’d love to use this instead!“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

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