The Case of the Abandoned Shopping Cart

The city of Moreno Valley in California is just one of many in recent years that has been exploring what to do about abandoned shopping carts that many see as a blight on their communities. With budgets tight, many municipalities are looking for retailers to cover the costs of their retrieval.

Given that shopping carts cost between $100 to $250, some stores have their own retrieval service. But recovery shortfalls appear to fall on local towns.

According to The Press-Enterprise, Moreno Valley’s planning committee came up with five options for stores after reviewing how 10 local cities handle wayward carts:

  • Install stainless steel posts as a barrier to prevent carts from leaving the premises;
  • Install wheel-locking devices that stop carts once they leave the store’s parking lot;
  • Install coin-operated cart machines that require customers to pay a deposit to use a cart and provide a refund upon its return;
  • Use associates to help patrons carry purchases to their vehicles;
  • Hire security guards to patrol parking lots to prevent cart removal.

The city wound up passing an ordinance requiring stores to install anti-theft devices on shopping carts. Depending on the number of shopping carts, it will cost about $50,000 per store to install anti-theft locking devices on the carts, a city official told The Press-Enterprise. The requirements only apply to "future" supermarkets, or those that change hands, because of officials’ fears existing retailers would exit the city given the added expense.

Stores will be required to hire their own retrieval service to patrol within a mile of their locations. Signs must be posted warning of unlawful removal. A $50 impound fee will be charged for those failing to round up missing carts.

Other cities have avoided the technology requirements. The city of Alhambra in California simply fines a retailer $100 for any abandoned cart found. In Virginia Beach, city inspectors alert stores if a cart is found on public property and takes it to a landfill if not retrieved by the store within 48 hours.

At the same time, municipalities and stores in many areas are grappling with how to appease customers without cars who depend on the carts to bring items home.

Richard Stewart, the mayor of Moreno Valley, told The Press-Enterprise that voluntary compliance by retailers and goodwill didn’t solve the issue. He said none of the local stores prosecuted customers who took home carts for fear of losing their patronage.

BrainTrust

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions: Should stores be more proactive in retrieving abandoned shopping carts taken from their lots? Do any of the emerging anti-theft technologies appear to provide a solution?

Poll

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Paula Rosenblum
Paula Rosenblum
12 years ago

In Miami and surrounding communities, wheel-locking devices are already in use by almost all supermarkets and mass merchants. It’s certainly not the municipalities’ responsibility to deal with this problem, and replacement costs are likely high enough to encourage installation of anti-theft devices.

In St Croix, the shopping carts don’t even make it out into the parking lot. When product is bagged, it is put in an entirely different cart, which is wheeled out by a store associate.

I’m surprised other municipalities haven’t just mandated that something be done to solve the problem before it happens, rather than fining the retailer after it happens.

Gene Hoffman
Gene Hoffman
12 years ago

Here we are in yet another Catch 22. Some people steal carts out of necessity since they don’t have cars. Others take the carts for other reasons. The result is that many carts leave store lots.

If stores offered a $1 reward for each returned cart, the problem would become a boutique business and grow even greater. If a city charged an impoundment fee, stores would then have to place restrictions on customer usage. Prosecuting offending customers is poor PR and so would stopping a customer outside the parking lot to retrieve a cart. Lastly, prayers haven’t worked.

What to do? Who knows? Perhaps a store could set up a neighbor cleanliness fund and offer a community charity — or the police department — so much each month but only if no carts were found abandoned that month. Would that give better community focus to the problem and help reduce or eliminate it? It’s a risk, but it beats the current gripe.

Steve Montgomery
Steve Montgomery
12 years ago

This is a problem with no perfect solution. Those who need the carts to take the groceries home have no disincentive to do so. Further, they are not likely to walk back to the store without being provided an inducement. Providing an incentive could work, but how do you know that they didn’t just simply find a cart at the edge of lot and return it? If the reward is large enough there will be those that “borrow” the carts so that they can then collect the reward for returning them.

The anti-theft lock technology is expensive and what do you do for those who need a cart to get their groceries home — suggest they shop elsewhere? One solution might be to sell them a smaller version of the cart. Most I have seen will hold only two paper bags, are low to the ground (not good in snow climate), etc., but at least it might slow the migration of the carts to the community surrounding the store.

Charles P. Walsh
Charles P. Walsh
12 years ago

Any of the anti-theft and deposit based solutions can work to resolve this issue. It is in the retailers best interest to employ these solutions as the loss of carts and the incumbent responsibility for retrieval and disposal is enough of an incentive to begin employing them in those areas where cart theft is high.

Hopefully retailers will employ these deterrents ahead of legislation as the costs of complying with legislated solutions is almost always higher than a retailer initiated/sourced one.

Tony Orlando
Tony Orlando
12 years ago

People in a poor area will take home carts and either use them for general stuff around the house or abandon them. When I was in college, Kroger had to install the barriers to keep folks from stealing carts, as they were all over the neighborhood. The fraternities used them for keg parties on the weekends. There really is no solution, other than charging for a cart when they come in, or put up barriers. It is a tough thing to deal with.

Ralph Jacobson
Ralph Jacobson
12 years ago

Funny. I thought this article was going to be about abandoned shopping carts on websites. LOL; This is nothing new, by any means. Retailers are responsible for their property. Period. Whether it’s having clerks or outside services drive the neighborhood searching for them, or using technology like wheel locks or even ancient “technology” like physical barriers, the responsibility rests with the store. It’s simply a cost of doing business.

I concur with offering a reward for returning carts, however, that may be tough to monitor, since, I would be the one pushing 50 carts into the store, after being the very person who stole them. Ha!

What about having the good old folding roller baskets that people have used for decades available at the POS for a nominal cost?

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
12 years ago

This is the type of problem (many) economists and other free-market “rationalists” assure us can’t happen. The carts are costly, and the loss of same is internalized (other than the enormous “blight” of an odd cart left around now-and-then), therefore stores will act on their own. And yet the good burghers in Riverside County are in a quandary about it, theory notwithstanding … maybe they should take a lesson from neighboring Alhambra, who seem to have a more common-sense approach.

Anne Bieler
Anne Bieler
12 years ago

Keeping control of carts is a major issue for retailers. Bad weather areas are a real hassle as carts wind up everywhere. Toronto area value chains use deposit systems that work well. Another approach considered was to sell the plastic tote boxes to shoppers — they fit on two level carts. In the parking lot, the shopper then just lifts them directly into the car, and these less expensive carts are returned. One of the limitation was scanning at checkout — lifting items out then back into the customer-owned unit — maybe time to tie into tech for in cart scanning?

Providing an incentive to ease the shopper congestion could lead to a better solution.

Bob Houk
Bob Houk
12 years ago

There is an element here of punishing the victim. Are other victims of theft forced to pay a fine?

The requirements only apply to “future” supermarkets, or those that change hands, because of officials’ fears existing retailers would exit the city given the added expense.

A reasonable fear, but did anyone on the council bring up the obvious follow-on point that they are effectively encouraging new retailers to build outside the city?

Ron Jimenez
Ron Jimenez
10 years ago

There are a number of technologies that can be brought to bear on this problem. Some are high expense (wheel locking) and some are simple (mobile device apps).

The issue is one of consumer awareness and re-orientation to the problem. Empowering customers and community members to have a stake in the solution is a step in the right direction. Municipalities are resource-limited and have higher priorities (e.g. fire, police etc). Mobile technologies are being increasingly applied to this problem as the path to the solution. Stores can be more active by looking outside current technologies for solutions. California Grocers Association seems to be taking steps to “think outside the box.”