8.10.090 Abandoned shopping cart prevention and retrieval plan.
A. Abandoned Shopping Cart Prevention and Retrieval Plan Required. Every owner who provides or intends to provide twenty-five or more shopping carts to customers shall develop, implement and comply with the terms and conditions of an approved abandoned shopping cart prevention and retrieval plan to prevent the unauthorized removal of shopping carts from a premises and, if removed, to retrieve the shopping cart within three business days after knowing of the cart’s removal from the premises or after receiving notice from the city that the shopping cart has been abandoned. Owners of shopping carts who provide less than twenty-five carts can self-certify and are not required to submit an abandoned shopping cart prevention and retrieval plan.
To be effective, an abandoned shopping cart prevention and retrieval plan must be approved by the director. To be eligible for approval, an abandoned shopping cart prevention and retrieval plan shall include the following elements:
1. Name. The name of the owner and the business name, the physical address where the business is conducted, name, address and phone number(s) of the on-site and off-site owner, if different.
2. Inventory of Carts. A complete list of all shopping carts maintained on or in the premises.
3. Community Outreach. A description of a community outreach process under which the owner shall cause notice to be provided to customers that the removal of shopping carts from the premises is prohibited and is a violation of state and city ordinance. This notice may include, but is not limited to, flyers distributed at the premises, warnings on shopping bags, signs posted in prominent places near door and parking lot exits, direct mail, announcements using intercom systems at the premises, website or other means demonstrated to be effective to the reasonable satisfaction of the director.
4. Cart Identification. Signs and shopping cart identification requirements which conform to state law. Owners shall attach an example of the proposed shopping cart ownership identification sign which shall conform to California Business and Professions Code Section 22345.1.
5. Languages. The information required above must be provided in English and Spanish or in such other language the director may reasonably require.
6. Loss Prevention Measures. A description of the specific measures that the owner shall implement to prevent shopping cart removal from the owner’s premises. These measures may include, but are not limited to, electronic or other disabling devices on the shopping carts so they cannot be removed from the premises, effective management practices, use of courtesy clerks to accompany customers and return the shopping carts to the store, use of security personnel to prevent removal, security deposit for use of shopping cart, or other demonstrable measures acceptable to the director that are likely to prevent shopping cart removal from the premises. Cart owners shall conduct regular maintenance to ensure disabling devices and/or security deposit systems are working properly. If at any time, a cart owner determines the disabling device installed on a cart is not working properly, the cart shall be pulled from circulation until it is repaired. The cart owner shall inspect, test, and repair all abandoned carts returned to the owner prior to making the returned carts available for use.
7. Employee Training. A description of an ongoing employee training program that shall be implemented by the owner and that shall be designed to educate new and existing employees on the abandoned shopping cart prevention plan and conditions contained therein at least annually.
8. Mandatory Cart Retrieval. A plan for retrieval of abandoned shopping carts by the owner within three business days after knowing of a cart’s removal from the owner’s premises or after receiving notice from the city that the shopping cart has been abandoned.
B. Failure to Submit Plan. The plan must be submitted to the city within sixty days after the ordinance that implements this chapter becomes effective or alternatively, if a business opens after the date the ordinance that implements this chapter becomes effective, then within thirty days after a business that uses carts commences operations. Any owner who fails to provide the abandoned shopping cart prevention and retrieval plan shall be required to pay the city one hundred dollars for each calendar month the plan is not provided, as a penalty for not complying with this section. (Ord. 1713 § 2, 2022)