A California mother said she nearly sent her toddler up a cart escalator at a Target store, then pulled the child out before the cart moved, per a TikTok video she posted.
Content creator Hayley Larue (@hayley_larue) shared the account in the video, which included clips of the moment. Larue said a bystander and a store employee both reacted while her mother filmed.
Larue Described Her First Time Using a Cart Escalator
Larue said she visited a multi-story Target with her mother and her young daughter, Livvy. At the store’s entrance, shoppers could send carts up a separate escalator while they rode the passenger escalator.
“So, we get to Target, and at this specific location, you walk in, you can get your cart, and then you can let your cart go up this escalator while you are going up the regular escalator,” Larue said in the video.
She had never used the cart escalator before. “I’ve never used this cart escalator thing before. I usually just do like a Target pickup,” Larue said.
She added that she does not often go into stores and prefers to order online.
Larue said she asked her mother to film her putting Livvy in the cart. Her mother kept recording longer than she wanted. “I had to keep telling her like, ‘Okay, that’s enough,’” Larue added.
Larue Said She Stopped Before the Cart Moved
Larue said few people were nearby at the time. She placed the cart on the ramp with Livvy still inside.
“I go to the thing and I put the cart like in the thing that takes the cart up, and Livvy’s still in it,” Larue said.
She added the cart had not gone through the gate. “I stood there and I was like, ‘Wait, she can’t go in this,’” the TikTok user noted.
She then took hold of her daughter to lift her out.
A Bystander and an Employee Responded
Larue said a woman spoke to her as she reached for Livvy. “Some lady goes, ‘Don’t do that!’” she added. The creator further said she turned around and replied, “Oh yeah, I know.”
Per Larue, the woman then said, “You could get in trouble.”
She answered, “Yeah, I got it.”
A Target employee walked in while this was happening. “I take Livvy out, and my mom is still filming. And not only that, then a Target employee is walking in as this is happening, and she’s also like, looking at me like I am the most incompetent mom,” the creator said.
Larue called the experience “so embarrassing.” She said, “All I did was stand there in front of it, and I was like, obviously she can’t go in, and I took her out.”
Cart Conveyors Were Built to Move Carts
Cart conveyors, also known as Vermaport systems, are commonly found in multi-floor stores. They are designed to move shopping carts alongside a passenger escalator, not to carry people.
Shopping carts have been linked to injuries in young children. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reviewed shopping cart-related injuries among children under 5 that required emergency room treatment between 2008 and 2012.
A 2017 poll from C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital found that nearly two-thirds of mothers of children ages 0 to 5 said they had been criticized about their parenting. The poll surveyed 475 mothers.
