Shopping cart with baby seat

Abstract

A shopping cart with a baby seat at the rear of the cart. The front wall of the seat, against which the infant or child leans, has an upright, closed position and an open position. The width of the baby seat front wall is less than the width of the main lading-carrying basket of the shopping cart, so that it can be swung down from its upright, closed position in the forward direction, when desired, to rest on the bottom wall of the basket to increase the capacity of the shopping cart by adding the space enclosed by the side and rear walls of the baby seat. A latch holds the baby seat front wall in its upright, closed position and preferably cooperates with a lost motion hinge at the bottom of the wall, and in its preferred form includes at least one cammed latch member that slides up across a ramp or slide member to (1) move the front wall upward as it approaches its closed position, and then (2) drop the front wall down to seat it in its closed position. The latch can be released by reversing this procedure. The preferred hinge includes a stud carried at each end of the hinge pintle that extends in a transverse direction from the pintle at an obtuse angle, preferably 135.degree., to the plane of the baby seat front wall. This construction means that the hinge pintle of the hinged front wall is retained in place without special connections, after the baby seat has been fixedly secured to the rest of the shopping cart.