I do my best thinking, for whatever reason, when I am waking up in the shower every morning – and today was no exception. I think I may have come up with an easy solution to the shopping cart problem in Santa Ana. A friend of mine has been trying to reason with me that a lot of folks need to use the carts in order to get their groceries home. And he’s right. There is no getting around the fact that a lot of poor people in my city don’t have cars and lugging dozens of bags of groceries home is a real hardship. So let’s start by allowing them to do exactly that.
The caveat would be that they would have to sign a waiver of liability form at the store, taking the store and the city off the hook should the get hurt while using the cart. Secondly, they would have to pay a $5 deposit and would then be issued a receipt. The cart would be numbered, and the receipt would note that number. If they returned the cart before the next morning, they would get back their money. Otherwise they would lose their deposit – and here’s the kicker, they would then be reported to the police, having effectively stolen the cart.
Administering the program would not be a big deal – all the forms should be easy to output from any cash register that is computerized. The security guards who already work at the stores could easily keep an eye out for folks taking carts – and sign them up for the deposit program on the spot.
The beauty of this plan is that the family that takes the cart does not necessarily have to bring it back. Anyone can. However, if you don’t have the receipt you will only get back half the deposit. The rest of the deposit will be kept by the store – reimbursing them in part for the cost of running the program. What this means is that any enterprising teenager, or homeless guy who will “work for food,” can pick up an abandoned cart, and bring it back to the store it belongs to, and get paid for it. A family could also let someone else, a friend or neighbor, return it, and if they have been given the receipt, they get $5 that they can spend any way they want to.
So there you go – decriminalize the shopping cart issue, make it easy to take and return a cart legally, and the problem is resolved. Now we can roll up our sleeves and start solving the real problems in our city – our horrifying lack of libraries, the disrepair of our roads and parks, etc.
Have you been by a Northgate market recently?
They have hundredfs of carts stolen from other vendors, such as Circut City,Bed Bath and Beyond, Bev Mo and various others that they have stolen and vandalized by painting them bright orange and leaving in the parking lot for people to walk them into the community and leave them there.
Arresting Mr Gonzalez for the possession of stolen property would be a good start.
Brilliant. A great beginning…
Thanx.
Art,
I like your thinking. I would prefer to leave punishment as the last resort, but you are definately on the right track
Art,
Pushing a shopping cart down street is still visual blight.
Maybe we could push your idea further by keeping the “shopping cart” in the store and allowing pedestrians to buy a collapsable cart on exit.
Art,
Majority of the folks who take the carts are on the food stamps and other social programs. They do not have $5.00 which means that a taxpayer would have to pick up the bill anyway. If they would have $5.00 dollars they could afford to buy folding shopping cart of their own. The problem is much more complicated than a need to bring groceries home.
Art P. , you have a great idea.You are offering a reasonable solution.I expect you will have many negative posts though.Many reasons why it won’t work will be given, because for some, issues like shopping carts are a tool to keep neighbors at odds and insight hate.Agendas to keep communities apart vary from political to hatred.If these types of problems are solved then these agendas suffer.Those of us that want solutions and cummunity harmony will support efforts like yours. Art Lomeli
How about requiring that all supermarkets install those electronic devices that stop the shopping carts as they go beyond a disignated line. All stores must have there own carts with their store moniker. Stores will be required to phase in these shopping carts throughout a year and would not be allowed to have more shopping carts than parking spots.
Stores would be fined for having other stores shopping carts.
Store would be fined for not implenting the electonic shut carts.
A CRV charge on carts is a good idea, and one way to fund a solution.
With the sales receipt and cart both needed to get the refund of the CRV.
That pushes the cost to the cart using consumer. Of course those consumer are the ones packed into the high density slums the city has allowed to replace SFR for the gain of developers and landlords (Slum lords?) (Mostly in ward #2 & #4, I think)
As I was leaving Fantastic Caf
I love it! A creative, sensible solution to this issue. I suppose the powers that be would need to tinker with it a bit, but it certainly works!
Good job, Art!
Art –
A thoughtful and forward thinking solution.
If poster #1 believes Mr. Gonzalez should be arrested for possesion of stolen property, then I hope residents call the cops on Evangeline Gawronski the next time she trespasses onto their property looking for code violations.