Sylvan Goldman

Sylvan Nathan Goldman (November 15, 1898 – November 25, 1984) was an American entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist best known for inventing the modern shopping cart, a device that revolutionized retail merchandising and self-service grocery shopping worldwide.

Born in Ardmore, Oklahoma Territory (now part of the Chickasaw Nation), to Latvian immigrant father Michael Goldman and mother Hortense Dreyfus from Alsace-Lorraine, Goldman grew up in a multicultural environment and left school after the eighth grade to support his family. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on April 25, 1917, serving as a mess cook during World War I before entering the grocery business with his brother Alfred after the war.

Michael Goldman, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia who arrived in the United States in and later participated in the 1889 Oklahoma land run, established a dry goods store in Ardmore with his brother-in-law, exposing the young Sylvan to the operations of retail commerce from an early age. Hortense Goldman, also Jewish, had immigrated from Alsace-Lorraine in the German Empire, bringing a European heritage to the family's pioneer existence in the American Southwest.

As one of only a handful of Jewish children in the small, predominantly non-Jewish town of Ardmore, Goldman grew up navigating the social isolation and cultural challenges typical of immigrant Jewish families in early 20th-century rural Oklahoma. The family's dynamics were shaped by the rigors of immigrant pioneer life, including economic hardships and the need to adapt to a new frontier environment far from established Jewish communities.

The Goldmans had two sons, Monte Henry Goldman (1935–1995), born in 1935, and Alfred Dreyfus Goldman (1938–1997), born in 1938. The family resided primarily in Oklahoma City, where they raised their children in an affluent household emphasizing Jewish traditions, including active membership in Temple B'Nai Israel. The sons later took on significant roles in managing the family's extensive business interests, which stemmed from Goldman's grocery empire including the Humpty Dumpty chain.