San Jose wants to “piggyback” off a partnership with Milpitas and a private company to tackle thousands of abandoned shopping carts.

The San Jose City Council voted 10-1, with Councilmember Pamela Campos voting no, to find an abandoned shopping cart retrieval service to recover about 2,000 carts citywide per year. Not only would a private company potentially help reunite retailers with their lost carts, it could also be integrated into the city’s 311 app to allow residents to report abandoned shopping carts. Campos, who opposed the idea, questioned if city workers would need to postpone their existing priorities in order to work on new efforts to address abandoned shopping carts.

City agencies such as BeautifySJ help identify abandoned shopping carts, which are then taken to Mabury Service Yard, but the site is nearing capacity.

Peter Hamilton, assistant to the city manager’s office, said San Jose’s proposal is modeled after Milpitas’ contract with shopping cart retrieval company Retail Marketing Services. The city manager’s office is set to come back to council before May with an agreement for review.

“There may be an opportunity for us to piggyback on that contract and start a small pilot program in the current fiscal year with (Retail Marketing Services),” he said at the meeting. “We would look to use existing funding sources in the realm of $10,000 to $20,000 to pilot it through the end of the current fiscal year.”

Tim James, spokesperson for the California Grocers Association, said the group supports San Jose’s proposal to bring in Retail Marketing Services, but has concerns about the city exploring penalties for people caught taking shopping carts from the premises of a business.

“Most cart thieves do not own a car, rely on public transportation, use the cart to safely cross streets with children, use the cart as walking aid and likely live within only a mile or two of the store location,” he said. “Carts are rarely stolen by the homeless as they tend to take a cart already stolen and hang onto that cart for a long period of time.”

Grocers are already fined for shopping carts through the San Jose code enforcement abandoned shopping cart policy. Code enforcement officials said they collected about $39,000 through 166 citations last year.

Mayor Matt Mahan said he doesn’t see how the city’s stormwater permit can be in good standing with the Clean Water Act while the city has an ongoing shopping cart crisis. He said it could cause San Jose to lose its permit and result in hefty fines.

“I don’t think we can change public perceptions of blight as long as we have 2,000 carts a year going missing and ending up all over the street,” Mahan said the meeting. “The situation out on the streets today is, frankly, unacceptable, and it’s contributing to a perception of disorder that’s much greater than the reality.”
City officials also want retailers to submit stronger abandoned cart prevention plans and implement effective loss prevention standards, such as wheel locking mechanisms or coin deposit for use.

Councilmember Michael Mulcahy said, as a commercial property owner, he knows shopping carts can be expensive losses for businesses.

“As an owner of shopping centers, we’ve always required an electronic shopping cart system be installed, and it’s written into leases that the stores are responsible to give their best efforts to keep those corralled,” he said. “Not all retailers have these systems. Not all landlords require them and many times both are not taking responsibility for keeping track.”