Car-Free Shopping  — Without the Schlepping

When a proper grocery store opened recently in my downtown neighbourhood, my first stop was ordering a VOOMcart. I’d been watching the small Toronto-based environmental startup for years, having caught wind of it when they launched a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2019. The ergonomic personal shopping cart — think baby stroller meets grocery cart, but cute — is the brainchild of childhood friends Erin Binnie and Tori Wright, who teamed up with another pal, engineer and industrial designer Jimmy Rogers.

The entrepreneurs had their a-ha moment when they were young parents. Walking everywhere with kids in strollers, Wright explains, was “a joy” because it meant you could socialize, grab a few groceries, get some exercise, and spend less time in the car. But once their stroller days were over, the friends found themselves back at the wheel — frustrated, stuck in traffic and moving away from the sustainable life they’d embraced. 

“Neccessity is the mother of invention,” Wright says. “We started thinking about how to get back to walking and looked for grocery cart alternatives. We didn’t see anything that could easily carry a full shop, plus maybe some wine.”

It took time and several bumps in the road (including the pandemic-induced global supply chain crisis) but VOOMcart, which can haul 70 lbs, folds up easily and has two removable bins, was launched in 2021. It’s recently been named the exclusive pedestrian cart sponsor for Culdesac, a purpose-built car-free community in Tempe, Arizona.

As for me, my VOOMcart has made grocery shopping far more fun. No more shlepping bags on my bike handles or wearing grooves in my shoulders with heavy totes. Plus, everywhere I go people want to talk about it. No car, no traffic, plus shopping with a dash of neighbourliness. It’s a win-win — or perhaps (forgive me) voom, voom.

Looking for more low-impact lifestyle ideas? Read about Toronto’s own Repair Café.