BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A shopping cart designed by an Alabaster mom for children with special needs will soon be available in two Birmingham area grocery stores.

who wanted to make grocery shopping easier for moms of children with special needs, like herself. Pushing a wheelchair and shopping cart at the same time is difficult.

In the past few years, the cart has grown from a concept she designed at her dining room table, nurtured through several prototypes and launched in an initial manufacturing run of 100 carts.

Along the way, it's gained fans around the world through a grassroots marketing effort on

Now, Birmingham-based Belle Foods, the company that recently purchased Southern Family Markets' 57 grocery stores in the Southeast, will be the first retailer to offer Caroline's Cart to shoppers.

This week, Belle Foods is

in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida that operate under banners including Bruno's, Food World and Piggly Wiggly.

On Wednesday, the company held a ribbon-cutting at the Bruno's store at U.S. 31 and Lorna Road in Hoover, which is now known as Belle Foods. Next week, the Food World in Alabaster will be converted to a Belle Foods.

At both of those stores, two to three Caroline's Carts will be available, said Paul McLaughlin, a spokesman for Belle Foods.

Carts also will likely be available at the rest of the company's stores as it continues to roll out the new Belle Foods banner, a process that is expected to take 18 months, he said.

At the stores that have the carts, shoppers can call ahead of time to reserve one. An employee will meet shoppers at their cars with the carts and also walk them out once they finish shopping, McLaughlin said.

Long, who shops at the Alabaster Food World, said she and her team approached Belle Foods about buying Caroline's Cart for their stores, as they have done with many other retailers.

"We thought it was a great opportunity for somebody new coming in and rebranding and wanting to be active in the community," she said.

Their response was enthusiastic, she said.

"They literally took it and ran with it," she said. "I was in awe of how excited they were and how they stayed in touch with us."

Belle Foods' owners, father-son team Bill and Jeff White, say they want their stores to be involved in the community and make shopping simpler for their customers.

Many of the stores were formerly owned by Birmingham-based Bruno's Supermarkets LLC, a longtime family business. Southern Family Markets purchased them after Bruno's filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Caroline's Cart is named after Long's daughter, 11-year-old Caroline, who has Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes multiple disabilities.

It's difficult for Long to navigate store aisles with Caroline in tow, a common experience among moms of special needs children. For them, shopping trips are often scheduled when they have a babysitter.

The shopping cart is equipped with a seat that has a harness and is tilted slightly, which is good for children with low muscle tone. It's also designed to turn easily and to not flip over.

The Hoover Belle Foods store will hold grand opening activities on Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. The company also is donating a total of $50,000 to Easter Seals of Birmingham and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The store has been renovated and now features a childcare center, wider aisles, a salad bar, a panini grill and a purple and green color scheme to match the Belle Foods logo.

Long said it's an overwhelming feeling to know Caroline's Cart will finally be available for other moms like herself to make their shopping easier. The push for other retailers to buy the carts continues.

She said it's been a challenge to try to change a culture that doesn't always make it easy for families with special needs children to fit in.

"It's the right thing to do," she said. "The response from the community -- moms, dads, businesses -- all over the U.S. is, 'We want this, we need this, why hasn't this been done sooner?'"