The Morro Bay City Council could adopt an ordinance that places the responsibility for abandoned shopping carts on business owners.
Under the proposed ordinance, if an abandoned shopping cart is found, businesses will have three days to retrieve the shopping cart. If it does not get removed, it could result in a $50 fine to the business.
Spencer’s Market store manager Garrett Nims agrees there is an issue but says the abandoned carts are not from his store.
“There definitely is a problem and we’re not the ones to blame. We’re not the ones that have an issue," Nims said.
Nims adds that Spencer’s has a plan in place for collecting the store's shopping carts.
“We regularly pick them up when we get a phone call. I think the problem is there’s another store that doesn’t do it. Punishing other stores for the fact that there is a problem doesn’t seem right," he said.
Morro Bay Fire Chief Dan McCrain says more abandoned shopping carts have been showing up throughout the city over the past few years, adding that numerous cities across the state have similar ordinances to the one being proposed.
“It allows us a method and a process to reunite the carts back with the business owners because that is a piece of property that has an expense for them to replace. If we can outline a process to get that back to them, that benefits the businesses," Chief McCrain said.
“We pay $180 for each shopping cart. We don’t want to lose them. We don’t want people walking off with them. We will deter people from taking our shopping carts and continue to collect them in the neighborhood and clean them and sanitize them and put them back into use," Nims said.
McCrain says the proposal aims to help the City of Morro Bay stay clean while preventing future safety hazards.
“It also does help protect the safety and the environment by removing the clutter and waste from our waterways and roadways, tripping hazards and traffic hazards — they’re left on sidewalks, they’re left on roadways. There’s also trash, things that are sanitary issues that we’re trying to address," McCrain said.
If the ordinance passes, stores with shopping carts will be required to submit an abandoned shopping cart prevention and retrieval plan to the city within 60 days of approval.
The proposed ordinance will be discussed during Tuesday night's city council meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the Veteran's Memorial Hall.
