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Stores Give Carts A Brake

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By ANGELA DELGADO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2008

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - In the war against neighborhood blight, abandoned shopping carts have been a nuisance the Town 'N Country community has been fighting for more than a decade.

Since 1996, residents have been calling on the county to come up with a solution to carts left by shoppers at bus stops and in alleys, ditches and even canals.

But it wasn't until 2001 that commissioners passed an ordinance calling on stores to develop retrieval plans to corral carts back to the stores. The retrieval plans usually involve an employee heading out into the community and picking up the offending carts once or twice a week.

The rule also requires stores to place tags and phone numbers on their equipment to make them easily identifiable by residents, store employees and code enforcement.

Recently, the Publix at 7018 W. Waters Ave. installed a device on its shopping carts that prevents customers from wheeling them off the property. The system, called Carttronics, involves a cable buried around the perimeter of the parking lot. Once someone reaches the end of the lot, an electronic signal from the cable causes the wheel to lock and the cart to become virtually immobile. Store employees use a remote device to unlock the wheel.

Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten said customers are advised of the devices with signs around the store and in the parking lot.

"This helps us with our efforts to minimize the amount of shopping carts that are lost," Patten said. "The average shopping cart costs $100, so when we lose several of these, it can add up. We're trying to protect our investment and minimize the number of shopping carts that are left around the local community."

Last week, Ed Conley was pushing a grocery-filled cart to his car after a visit to the Publix on Waters Avenue. He wasn't aware of the new device on the carts because he had never attempted to roll them off the property. That is, until curiosity got the better of him.

After putting groceries in his car, Conley made his way to the edge of the parking lot. Just as he reached the border, out shot a yellow plastic boot from the cart's front right wheel, and it stopped Conley dead in his tracks.

Well, sort of. Despite the device, Conley was still able to push the cart if he put some effort into it.

"It depends on how strong the person pushing it is," said Conley, 60. "I think you could still take it off the property, but I wouldn't want to take it on a 2- or 3-mile trip."

Regardless, Conley said he was glad that Publix was taking the initiative to try to prevent the carts from appearing in his community.

"I think it's a good thing," he said. "I hate seeing grocery carts all over the neighborhood. Publix carts get deserted hither and dither. We, the customers, end up paying for it in the long run."

Patten said 100 of Publix's 963 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee have Carttronics installed on the carts. A handful of stores in the Tampa Bay area are among those 100. The company monitors how often a store has to order new carts, Patten said.

"The shopping carts are Publix's property, and if you take them beyond that, it is considered stolen property," she said.

Publix is following in the footsteps of the Wal-Mart located across the street at 7011 W. Waters Ave. The corporation installed a similar device on its carts a little more than a year ago, Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said.

"We installed this system in response to some customer concerns that were raised with the store management team about shopping carts being left by other customers in nearby neighborhoods," Fogleman said in an e-mail.

"This type of capability provides an effective deterrent to having shopping carts removed from the lot, although, unfortunately, no system is perfect in that regard."

Although the ordinance concerns all of Hillsborough County, the Town 'N Country community was key in the creation of the regulation, said Jim Blinck, manager of code enforcement operations for the county.

The reason: Town 'N Country was the most affected.

"The biggest impact is in the Town 'N Country area because there are quite a few apartment complexes," Blinck said. The ordinance "gives us an extra enforcement tool to try and convince the stores to try and retrieve their shopping carts."

If the store is in violation and refuses to pick up its carts or doesn't have a retrieval plan in place, the ordinance calls for a fine of $100 a day. The county hasn't had to do this.

"Most stores want to comply," Blinck said. "They want to be good neighbors in the community. The most we've had to do is go there and tell them some of their shopping carts are in a location."

Not long after the ordinance passed in 2002, neighbors complained that the county wasn't enforcing the regulation. Enforcement is difficult because they don't have the manpower, Blinck said.

"We're reactive to complaints instead of being proactive," he said.

Blinck did say that code enforcement staff members will begin visiting stores in Town 'N Country to verify they are in compliance with the ordinance. They will be doing the same visits countywide.

"In the retail world, management changes constantly. And we recognize that when new management comes in, they may not be familiar with the ordinance," he said.

"Our goal is not punishment; our goal is compliance, so we want to have an open dialogue with retail outlets that use shopping carts so they're aware of our expectations."

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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