Cart Control: Strategies to Combat the Epidemic of Missing and Stolen Shopping Carts

Whether at your favorite big-box store or stopping to pick up some groceries, it’s hard to ignore the shopping carts scattered haphazardly around parking lots these days. The return of shopping carts to their designated spots or back inside the store has become somewhat of a test of morality in recent years. However, returning shopping carts has proven to be an undesirable chore for many.

Due to people not returning carts or people taking off with them, millions of shopping carts go missing every year after being abandoned in public places, causing a nuisance in cities and hazards on roadways. Lost carts are also a costly problem for retailers and consumers alike, with the cost of the carts eventually passed down to shoppers.

The Costly Cart Problem

For retailers, each missing or stolen shopping cart can result in a cost upward of $200 each, adding up quickly and creating a financial burden for stores and shoppers. Wayward carts can also cause an issue with personnel, as more work hours devoted to wrangling carts become necessary, along with the liability of them getting hurt.

Stray shopping carts have become such an issue that numerous cities have proposed bills and initiatives targeting the missing cart problem. The city of Santa Fe, N.M. proposed a bill that would fine businesses for each shopping cart that the city found and returned. In less than a year, the city collected 3,000 shopping carts, totaling a cost of $47,000. Likewise, the city of Fayetteville, N.C., spent $78,468 collecting missing and stolen carts.

While there's no national data on the costly issue of missing carts, the cost to retailers can hit consumers’ wallets. With retailers likely losing millions every year due to missing and stolen carts, the costs will eventually be passed down to shoppers.

Solutions to the Cart Problem

The issue of missing carts hasn’t received much press, but it is a large enough problem that retailers have searched long and hard for solutions. One solution utilized by a well-known grocery retailer is to have shoppers pay a quarter to release a cart from a locked corral, which is then returned once their cart is. Critics of this approach call attention to the fact that the cost of a quarter won’t stop someone who really wants to steal a cart.

Other stores have implemented GPS tracking on their carts or cart-locking systems that disable a cart’s wheels if it's taken beyond certain boundaries. This solution requires a high maintenance input from the retailer, as once locked, each wheel must be individually changed, but there's no way to know which carts have locked wheels.

Some retailers are turning to smart technology to solve the cart problem and give them the added bonus of customer insights and marketing opportunities. New “smart” solutions offer cart hubs with easily trackable carts that can be locked when not in use, and can even provide incentives to shoppers to return their carts as well as valuable insights for retailers.

White-label apps and interactive dashboards, for example, let retailers customize the system and offer deals and VIP experiences to cart users, tackling the ongoing missing cart problem through a combination of technology, engineering and psychology.

The problem of missing shopping carts poses a considerable issue for retailers and their customers. By implementing a variety of solutions, retailers are not only minimizing their own financial losses but also contributing to safer communities. This costly issue can be solved through ingenuity, technology, and positive customer engagement, saving retailers and consumers time and money.

Haim Heller is the chief operating officer and founder of TRACARTS, an expertly engineered, easy-to-install, unobtrusive shopping cart retraction system.