I stopped in at Safeway to buy a few items. There were no shopping baskets by the door. I went looking around the check out lines and found nothing. I finally asked a cashier who said, “We don’t have any. We’re expecting some today.” I know that people steal shopping carts for transporting their purchases back to their homes, apartments, or to the bus stop, but I didn’t know the thieving had graduated from carts to baskets.
Shopping carts left near the bus stop.People complain about the cost of food, but shoplifting and borrowing shopping carts gets added into the cost of doing business. Borrowing is stealing. “The Food Marketing Institute reports that nearly 2 million shopping carts are stolen each year, translating into a per-store loss of $8,000 to $10,000 annually — and that’s only in the food industry.” Shoppers wouldn’t think of borrowing a car to get their purchases home, but these same people assume that as customers they are allowed to take baskets and carts with them.
Many shopping carts end up left blocks and miles away from where they were stolen. Retrieving is left to the grocery chain, where it is sometimes just less expensive and less time consuming to leave the carts where they were abandoned or dumped. The cost of baskets, and carts, plus shipment and delivery is passed along to consumers. We all pay for it. Please, people do not steal or borrow items that do not belong to you . . . in the end it will cost you if you do. Even worse, it will cost me. Darn you, basket rustlers.
Mr. Doman, your plea “Please, people do not steal or borrow items that do not belong to you…” will sadly fall on deaf ears. I empathize with people who must ride mass transit for shopping. I don’t make light of that, but it seems as if this shopping cart phenomenon is now ingrained into the way-of-life in America. It’s reached entitlement status: “I need to go shopping; I’m not able to carry my purchased items; I have no choice but to take the shopping cart; I am therefore entitled to steal or borrow the cart.” I don’t buy that. Question: When these people reach their destination bus stop, how do they get their purchased items home? Answer: They carry them.
Recently, someone left a shopping cart in my yard, so I put it in my pickup and took it to the merchant. Had I not owned a pickup, I suppose I would have had to push it back.
Marty,
Thank you for reading and writing. I have both called people on cart theft and took photographs of them wheeling their grocery cart blocks away from any store. I always make sure they see me taking photographs of them. I don’t do anything with the images, but if I can create doubt in their minds I hope they won’t keep doing it. With stores offering delivery services there is little excuse, but I know the reality is they will keep doing it . . . and I will keep reminding them . . . perhaps I’ll stage some fake photos and post them on local bulletin boards . . . that might get some action.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.
Don
While also shopping at Safeway one day I met an enterprising fellow with a half-dozen or so shopping carts in this truck.
In the course of our conversation about shopping carts – of interest to me since it was a subject apparently of great interest to the Lakewood Police Department (LPD) about which I’d written on a number of occasions – I leaned he was under contract with a number of grocery stores to search for – kind of an adult version of an Easter Egg Hunt – derelict shopping carts.
He would return them for cash. His route extended from Renton to Lacey. I have his contact info. should someone want to inquire as to whether he is hiring – given the problem missing shopping carts are purported to be – or whether he might pay a commission, a finder’s fee.
It would be interesting to know the results of the letter LPD Chief Zaro sent to Lakewood stores requesting their assistance in shopping cart retrieval.
That letter ended a 21-month study (December 2015) – at least missing shopping carts was on their agenda for nearly two years – of the Public Safety Advisory Committee.
If the letter has not produced measurable, tangible results, how about the following.
“What returning your shopping cart says about you,” is an intriguing title to an article by Craig Dacy that appeared September 12, 2016 in his financial publication out of Austin, Texas. Given the near 1,000 comments, the matter of unreturned shopping carts is apparently as grating as a wobbly, squeaky wheel.
Worth a try would be a simple reminder in a slip-in clear plastic sleeve attached to each shopping cart for the user:
“What Returning Your Shopping Cart Says About You”
1. You care about others. By returning this shopping cart you have made life easier for someone else.
2. You take responsibility. By returning this shopping cart you have set an example for your children: everything – even shopping carts – have their rightful place.
3. It is about you after all. By returning this shopping cart, you – not government, which otherwise might spend untold amounts of money, and/or time (which is money) studying this problem – have put the matter, let alone the cart, where it belongs: in your hands.
Or do like it’s done in Germany as one Suburban Times commenter suggested as he noted is also done in the ALDI stores here in America. Install a chain with coin slot requiring a $1 store token to use a shopping cart. To receive your dollar back, put your cart back. Simple as that.
One more. Hire the homeless to not only pick up litter – on Lakewood’s budget for this year – but return shopping carts like we used to do as kids with pop bottles.
I agree with the lock on pay carts. This is also done in England and certainly stops the theft of carts.
Also people who need to ride public transportation buy a pulley shopping cart or even a small size suitcase. Makes life easier for everyone.
David,
Thanks for reading AND for the comments with details. I love it. What great ideas and words of wisdom. Please, keep reading my articles and commenting. It makes life interesting and fun.
Don
You mention ALDI’s solution – it’s actually a quarter – I used it at one of their stores in North Carolina, and it’s pretty slick. Given the extent of the problem in some areas, I expect the system will become more common. The only question is whether or not a quarter, or even a dollar, is enough incentive to return the cart.
I have suggested this kind of idea for years. Perhaps $5 would get people to return the carts. If not, think of the enterprising kids who would seek out the carts in order to reap rewards for their efforts.
Gary,
Thanks for reading and writing. I love to see comments. I do like the return the cart program like the airports use. Actually, this was the first time that I found the carrying baskets not available at Safeway. I wonder if the problem with carrying baskets began when Safeway switched to those crummy paper bags with with the little straps that break when you try to pick up a loaded bag? I prefer the tough plastic bags provided at Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree. They are extremely strong . . . I have a collection because I forget to take them with me when I go shopping . . . but then that’s a different problem.
Again, thanks, for reading, thinking, and writing.
Don
Dave,
I agree. As I young teenager living in nearby Ponders Corner I used to ride my bike along the fences leading up to McChord AFB picking up pop and beer bottles. I usually bought books with my bottle money!
Thanks for thinking over the problem and sharing.
Don
Don, you bought books. Aaah, you started out in life as an intellectual.
My pal Biff and I use to take a pickup load of pop and beer bottles to the Food Giant Store in Southy Seattle where we traded bottles for cash.
So I was just like you when I was a kid, except we never bought one single book. We bought more pop and donuts.
Obviously I am not an intellectual. I am a donut eater and to this day Lakewood’s House of Donuts values my poor decision to choose donuts over books.
Joseph Boyle
Joe,
Great reply,
Donuts over Books seems awfully sweet.
For the price of a pop or beer bottle…
James,
Thanks for reading and commenting . . . I think Joe Boyle got a little confused earlier . . . I did buy books with my beer and pop bottle return money, but the books were about cakes and donuts!
Don
At certain stores in SoCal the carts have some type of device in the wheels and they lock up when the cart crosses a specific line painted on the ground in the parking lot. Seems to work.
We have that at Lakewood Safeway. It is a good idea unless you park your car just beyond the painted line, but there is a work-a-round for that too.
The other downside is the challenge of getting retail merchants to spend the money to install the system. I would think in time the system would pay for itself if the carts stop disappearing.
Joseph Boyle
Joe and Joyce,
I like the white line theory of cart protection. It’s like an electric fence/dog collar. I wonder if they could somehow alter the device so it would work on the handheld grocery baskets as well? Perhaps, add an audio alarm . . . just enough to irritate the shopper . . . and not make a basket case out of them.
Don
Or do like the clothing stores. Have a device spray a dye (bright yellow?) in all directions once the basket crosses the line.
I thought was like the bank for hold-ups? The money and the person is covered with blue dye . . . I think I hear a Creedence song coming on . . . Stuck in blue dye, again . . .
Thanks for the afternoon chuckle.
Don
Dave,
Thanks for your last comment. I agree, we have to draw the line somewhere. Thanks for sharing your ideas, I think there has to be a follow up article on grocery cart theft.
Don
I read this story just now, but still want to add something. In BC Canada, they have used the coin in the cart system for many years. Carts just do not leave the lot, as people want their dollar back (1 & 2 dollar currency is coin there) and it is so simple! Put in the coin, do your shopping, plug the key into the cart at the end of the line, get your dollar back. The tired argument that it adds cost to upgrading the carts is lost when considering the cost of replacing the whole cart. The grocery industry needs to get with the times or stop complaining about the cost to replace the carts – and passing that cost on to their customers!
Cindy,
Thanks for reading and for commenting. The only problem I see is that we don’t use a dollar coin very much . . . but could. I actually wish more people used the Sacagawea . . . Now that I think about it, I believe I will start using the Sacagawea dollar coin.
Thanks, again for reading and sharing.
Don