This is my Jeep stroller. It is probably the best stroller ever. It’s also the best shopping cart ever. It has cupholders. It has not just a pop-up glove compartment at the top but extra cargo bags on the left and right for small items.
The basket underneath is enormous. It carries tons of weight. The wheels are rugged and have been able to navigate through just about any terrain, including going to the local market through Colorado winters.
I can load a couple of 12-packs of sodas, carry about 6-8 other bags of groceries. There’s room above, there’s room below, there’s easy-to-tie-to-handles. When I’m at the store, I can stick a basket in it, fill it, surround it, and put coats, gloves, hats, etc below (or use that area for more groceries). It is, in short, the ultimate shopping machine.
Only one problem. My baby is now a few years away from starting to grow facial hair. Try to use this thing and you get side eye, hairy eyeball, every kind of “are you some kind of sick bag-lady with an old shopping cart stroller” look you can imagine.
There’s some kind of unspoken consensus that after our kids have grown, we must transition to granny carts. I used to own a granny cart when I was in college. It was fantastic. (4-wheel variety because two wheels and tilts are a sucker’s game.) I loved that cart for shopping, laundry, and so forth, but after using my Jeep stroller, there is no way I am going back to the granny cart.
I’m throwing this out there to my brain trust. How do I “de-baby” this cart so I can continue using it to lug massive quantities of various haulage without being a social pariah?
It was bad enough a few years ago when I could answer all the “so where’s your…baby…?” questions with “I’m on the way to pick him up from daycare/school/whatever.” But now? I don’t have that excuse.
There is no baby. There is only cart. It doesn’t have to be “cool”. I just don’t want members of the homeowners association to start calling the police about the crazy lady walking around with an empty baby stroller.
Thanks in advance for your help.
9 Comments
Put a stuffed animal inside – a dog that looks like its sleeping. Wrap in a blanket – no one will know that its not real!
Because a fake baby or pet is *way* more sane looking to concerned neighbors?
Totally get it. I have a Jeep 3-wheel “off road” stroller that’s very similar (and also very bomb). I think loosing the rain cover would probably help somewhat. Other than that, own it! (full disclosure, I have a vested interest in you normalizing this so that I can boldly follow in your footsteps.)
Rain cover helps stabilize stacks of items, adds support.
If I could “promote” your comment, I would. But I don’t think wordpress lets me. Instead, let me give you like-thumbs: ????
Two words: “Steampunk Stroller” (http://bit.ly/1HXze4C, etc) 😀
You need to deck it out with high-tech gadgets that are useful in the stores you use it. First, secure an iPad to it, back there on that Jeep logo part. Write an app that has all the stores where you shop – shopping lists, aisle maps, etc. I’ve find myself, when grocery shopping mostly, taking pictures of sale tags on items that are on sale, that I don’t need right now, but I might by the time the sale is over. I use Evernote to take the picture (you could do this with Evernote on your phone and it will sync to Evernote on your stroller/cart/buggy iPad), then set a reminder (in Evernote) to remind you of the impending end of sale. Just thinking here. You need to make it high tech. Instead of “look at that bag lady with that stroller”, everyone will be wanting to see your gadgets.
IMHO the solution is to not care what people think. You discovered a better cart. When people ask you can tell them about how much better it is and maybe they’ll join you. Then it won’t be weird; you’ll hailed as a hero.
Pimp it up, Hot-Rod style…
The things that make this a stroller are the seat and the baby “console” (and, as previously mentioned, the sun shade). Remove those and you are good to go.
You’ll need to replace the seat with something in order to retain the cargo capacity: some kind of basket should do the trick. This should be easy if you don’t need the device to collapse, otherwise you might need to get a little handy, or find a maker-space.