By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Drew Ann Long still remembers her exact thoughts when she received the news in late January.

“I would say it validates what I’ve been working on for so many years. This is what I’ve been working for,” Long said during a Feb. 9 interview. “This is huge because this is Target. Target is a leader, and I think by them doing this, it sends out a strong message.”

A few weeks ago, the Target supermarket chain notified Long and the North Carolina-based manufacturer of the Caroline’s Cart special-needs shopping cart of its plans to add the cart to all of its stores across the nation.

For the past eight years, Long has been working to design and market Caroline’s Cart, which is designed with a seat to fit adolescent and young adults with special needs.

The cart is named after Long’s daughter, Caroline, who has Rett’s syndrome, a nervous system disorder affecting movement and expressive language. After Caroline outgrew the infant seats in traditional shopping carts, Long began having trouble shopping with her daughter. After Long began working to create a solution to the problem, Caroline’s Cart was born.

For about a year, Target has been testing Caroline’s Carts in some of its stores, drawing a significant amount of praise on the store’s social media channels.

“They selected a handful of stores to do a test market, and they were wildly successful,” Long said. “As people started using the carts, they started praising them on social media and flooding Target’s newsfeeds.”

As a result, Target announced on Feb. 4 it will offer at least one Caroline’s Cart at nearly every one of its stores across the nation beginning in March.

“Beginning March 19, the vast majority of our stores (with the exception of a handful of our smallest stores where we don’t have full-size carts) will have at least one Caroline’s Cart, and many will have more, depending on their guests’ needs,” read a Target press release.

After landing her invention in one of the nation’s largest retailers, does Long have any plans to slow down with the project?

“You should know me better than that,” Long said with a laugh, noting Walmart is her next nationwide goal. “I see this as just getting started. I will stop when every retailer that offers a shopping cart is meeting the needs of the special-needs community.”