Council put brakes on shopping cart law
Revisions expected after supermarket officials raise concerns on Thursday
WATERVLIET, N.Y. >> After hearing concerns from the Capital Region’s largest supermarket chain, the City Council on Thursday night delayed action on a proposal that would have fined retailers for not collecting shopping carts left on city streets.
Stores would face fines of $100 for each cart collected by city workers, and if the company doesn’t retrieve the cart within 30 days, the city would have the right to put it up for auction. Representatives from Price Chopper Supermarkets, which has a massive store off 19th Street, expressed concern, however, during a public hear- ing on the proposal at the beginning of the meeting.
While company officials agree something needs to be done to reduce the number of carts that leaves their property, they feel the penalty is excessive, especially since the carts end up in the street through no fault of the store.
“We’re in favor of the desired result, which is to reduce the number of stray carts on the streets,” Mona Golub, a spokeswoman for Price Chopper and Market 32, said Friday. “The fact of the matter is that nobody wants our carts to stay in the confines of our property more than we do because we invested quite a bit of money to purchase them, and also in the electronic cart containment system.”
Mayor Michael Manning said he and the other member of the council, Councilman Charles Patricelli, realized after the hearing that the legislation needed to be revised to address that issue.
“The root cause of the problem is that people are taking the carts,” Manning said. “The root cause of the problem isn’t that Price Chopper is giving carts away, so I think there was enough feedback from the public that the law as it was written wasn’t perfect and wasn’t ready for adoption.”
The local law was proposed by Patricelli, who said seeing shopping carts near bus stops on city streets is an eyesore and a problem that is not new to the city. He said the city has more than 10 shopping carts stored at its public works garage after workers found them on the street.
“It’s been a constant problem and issue for years, and the shopping carts left around the city can be seen as unattractive and hazardous,” explained Patricelli. “It’s an issue that really needs to be corrected.”
Manning agreed he no- tices shopping carts commonly left near the bus stop on 2nd Avenue.
“Right now, after city employees pick up shopping carts, they just kind of sit around,” said Manning, “and that’s the other reason for the law. We need to have some grounds to dispose of the carts if they don’t get claimed.”
Golub pointed out that the supermarket chain is already taking steps to keep its shopping carts on its property, pointing to an electronic system designed to lock the wheels if someone tries to take it out of the parking lot.
“Obviously, some very determined people figured out how to defy that system,” she said.
Price Chopper officials also proposed some possible revisions to the law at the hearing.
“We reflected on some of the laws that are in place in other locales in which we do business,” explained Golub. “We have worked hand in hand with other local authorities in other locations, and in those locales, fines are levied on the violators who remove the carts. The onus for indentifying stray carts and returning them to our property relies on a team effort between the city and the retailer.”
Company officials also suggested having retailers post signs warning that cart removal is prohibited by the city and may be subject to a fine, but also that the retrieval fine for retailers be removed.
“We requested that they reconsider the retrieval fine for us as retailers, given that it’s five to 50 times more than any other such law on record, and it actually exceeds the cost of a new cart,” said Golub.
Manning said city officials will work on revising the law and present it for another public hearing before voting on the measure.
“We would expect to have some revisions to it to incorporate the comments that were made,” added Manning.
Meanwhile, both city and Price Chopper officials were hopeful they would be able to work together to address the problem.
“We share the same desired result: We would like to keep the carts on our property, so we asked them to table their vote to further consider and potentially incorporate some of our suggested revisions,” said Golub. “They did just that, so we look forward to working collaboratively with them to improve the situation.”