County enacts shopping cart ordinance

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

D. Madeleine Johnsen does the same thing each time she sees a person pushing a shopping cart filled with groceries off store premises.

She confronts the person, empties the cart, tosses it into her pickup and returns it to the store.

"I'm 75 and fearless," Johnsen told Clark County commissioners Tuesday.

If an unyielding crew of cart-patrollers such as Johnsen existed, commissioners say they could have avoided enacting an ordinance Tuesday requiring most grocery stores to install shopping cart containment systems in their parking lots.

The new ordinance applies only to stores in Clark County. The city of Las Vegas is considering a similar law for stores in its jurisdiction.

Board members first viewed snapshots of grocery carts left on streets, sidewalks and alleys, and then voted 5-1 to adopt the new law. Commissioner Chip Maxfield voted against the ordinance. Myrna Williams was absent.

Commissioner Erin Kenny, who introduced the ordinance, said abandoned carts are not only eyesores, but they become traffic and pedestrian hazards when they roll into streets and sidewalks.

"This is something we need to do because you literally can't get to a bus stop sometimes because it's totally littered with shopping carts," Kenny said.

At least two critics of the ordinance -- Johnsen included -- questioned why grocery stores are being punished for being burglarized, why police don't get involved and why the government has to interfere.

Ironically, opponents of the new law did not include the Retail Association of Nevada, which represents large stores such Raley's, Vons and Albertson's.

Mary Lau, executive director of the Retail Association of Nevada, worked with county staff members to craft the ordinance. She said the association doesn't necessarily support regulations, but understands the problem.

"People take shopping carts to the bus stop and leave them there," she said. "Or it becomes a place to store property."

Lau said the most common method of keeping carts in parking lots is an electronic system that causes the wheels to lock when the carts are taken from the property.

The minimum price tag of $30,000 to install the system in some cases is insignificant when some grocery stores lose as much as $80,000 worth of carts each year, she said.

Stores in urban areas will have 13 months to build systems; stores in rural areas might be exempt if they prove cart thefts are not a problem.

When county employees are called to retrieve an abandoned cart, the grocery store that owns the cart will have to reimburse the county. A fine of $50 will be slapped on stores that leave the carts in the county's possession for more than 36 hours.

Johnsen calls abandoned shopping carts her pet peeve. She can glance at a cluster of carts and know exactly how much they're worth -- one is about $185; 10 are $1,085. Her granddaughter does the same.

Johnsen wondered why her granddaughter can recognize it's a crime to take carts, but the county cannot. And resident John Baker wondered the same.

"If you steal a candy bar, you'd be arrested," Baker said. "When you steal an expensive grocery cart you don't get a fine; you don't get a ticket."

Kenny defended the county's decision to interfere and place regulations on grocery stores.

"This is not out of the ordinary," she said. "This is something we need to do."