July is Disability Pride Month: At Costco, Inclusiveness and Accessibility Shouldn't Depend on Your ZIP Code

Standing near the entrance of the Sharon Costco Wholesale warehouse, I realized there was no safe way for my child with disabilities to shop with me. There was no adaptive Caroline’s shopping cart. I was left with an impossible choice: risk their safety or leave.

We left.

No family or caregiver should have to walk out of a store because there is no safe way for their loved one to shop.

That experience isn't unique. Many families and caregivers at the Sharon Costco location, across Massachusetts, and the entire country have been telling the same story for years.

Caroline’s Carts are adaptive shopping carts designed for children and adults with disabilities who cannot safely use a standard shopping cart, wheelchair, or motorized scooter while a caregiver shops. For many families, they are not a convenience, they are the difference between participating in everyday life and being excluded from it.

Yet many Costco locations, including the Sharon warehouse, still do not provide them.

Families in many states across the U.S. have spent nearly a decade asking Costco to adopt adaptive shopping carts nationwide. Multiple petitions have circulated over the years, including one that alone gathered more than 160,000 signatures. Parents, caregivers, disability advocates, and customers have written letters, contacted corporate offices, and shared deeply personal stories. Despite those efforts, many continue to receive the same response: wheelchairs and motorized scooters are sufficient.

For many people with disabilities, they are not.

Children and adults with developmental disabilities, autism, sensory disorders, mobility limitations, traumatic brain injuries, dementia, and complex medical conditions often cannot safely use those alternatives. Without adaptive carts, a simple shopping trip can become unsafe or impossible.

What makes this issue harder to ignore is the gap between policy and lived experience.

There is an important difference between being inclusive and being accessible.

Inclusion means being able to participate safely and with dignity once you are inside. It means caregivers are supported, not left to navigate risk. It means families are not forced to choose between safety and basic daily needs.

Accessibility means a person can physically enter a building. The parking lot and building structures include a ramp, a wide enough door and shopping isles. It meets the minimum standard required to get inside.

For nearly a decade, families, caregivers, and disability advocates have asked Costco to adopt a simple, consistent solution: make adaptive shopping carts available at every warehouse. With hundreds of thousands of voices raised through petitions, letters, and advocacy efforts, that request can hardly be described as unreasonable.

Costco has the resources and infrastructure to implement a company-wide solution. The question is no longer whether it is possible. It is why families are still waiting.

What makes this even more difficult to understand is inconsistency. Some Costco warehouses provide adaptive Caroline’s carts. Others do not. That inconsistency sends a troubling message: whether a disabled customer can shop safely depends entirely on which warehouse they visit.

Meanwhile, retailers including Walmart, Target, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s, and Home Depot have implemented adaptive shopping options, recognizing that accessibility is not an extra. It is part of serving the public.

Costco’s leadership has spoken about the company’s commitment to serving all members and fostering an inclusive environment. Those values should be reflected in every warehouse, not just some of them.

For families and caregivers who are forced to turn around and leave, those commitments ring hollow.

This is about far more than one type of shopping cart.

It is about whether children and adults with disabilities can participate in everyday life with dignity. It is about whether caregivers must choose between protecting a loved one and buying groceries. And it is about whether one of the world’s largest retailers will implement a solution that has already been requested for years and already exists in some of its own warehouses.

Inclusion and Accessibility should never be determined by a ZIP code.

No family or caregiver should have to wonder whether they will be welcomed or turned away. Simply because they visited one Costco warehouse instead of another.

During July Disability Pride Month, we celebrate the principle that people with disabilities belong in every part of our communities.

That includes grocery stores and warehouses.

Costco has the opportunity to become a leader in accessibility by adopting a consistent, company-wide policy that ensures adaptive shopping carts are available at every warehouse.

The question is no longer whether it can.

The question is why, after years of requests from families, caregivers, and disability advocates, it still hasn't.

No one should ever feel excluded because of a Disability or Medical Condition and everyone should have equal access to be able to shop with dignity throughout.

For more information on Caroline’s Carts, visit: https://carolinescart.com