Grocers yet to ride Costa Mesa cart plan

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Merchants and city officials have forged a tentative

plan designed to rid the streets of abandoned shopping carts, but

retailers say they want more details before they can wholeheartedly

commit to it.

In the second meeting on the issue, city code enforcement officials --

along with the mayor, police and maintenance department representatives

-- were able to get a preliminary commitment from various grocers to

partner with the city in a cart-removal contract.

The city attorney’s office is drafting a contract that would give

Costa Mesa officials primary control over a citywide cart-retrieval

program, while charging individual grocers for their share of the

solution, said Sandi Benson, the code enforcement manager for the city.

“If the city would manage the contract, most of the grocers said they

were willing to share the costs,” Benson said.

The overarching city contract would take the place of various

individual agreements retailers said they already had for cart-retrieval

services. This would allow the city to demand that all carts be picked up

regardless of the store name emblazoned on them, officials contend.

Most grocers said their existing contracts were with California Cart

Retrieval. In the event of a city-managed agreement, Costa Mesa would

have to put a contract out to bid to find the best cart-retrieval

service.

Officials from California Cart Retrieval could not be reached for

comment.

Retailers questioned the amount that would be charged and who would

make up for the carts that were not marked. Although details were

missing, store representatives said they would be willing to review a

tentative contract.

Maureen McCormick, who represented Trader Joe’s at the meeting, said

the grocery store supported any effort to improve the community but

worried about the financial burden. She said the grocer was waiting to

see the proposed contract before giving its endorsement of the

partnership. If the city charges merchants on a per-cart basis, then it

could be cost effective for Trader Joe’s, McCormick said.

“We want to do the right thing, but there aren’t too many Trader Joe’s

carts out there, and I don’t think it is fair that we pick up the costs

for carts that aren’t ours,” she said.

Trader Joe’s has 240 carts at its 17th Street location. On any given

day, there are only one or two carts missing from the lot, store manager

Richard Payne said. Now the store sends out an employee with a truck to

pick up the missing carts.

“Our carts are not really an issue,” Payne said. “Once in a while, a

neighbor will call, and we run down and pick it up.”

Mayor Linda Dixon said the grocers must be involved to make the

solution work and hoped they would support a city-managed contract.

“We need to work together as a community to rid the streets of the

blight that shopping carts represent,” Dixon said.

In August, the council unanimously agreed to solicit a company to pick

up abandoned carts around the city. The city could spend up to $7,000 a

month for a retrieval service. Rather than spend taxpayer money,

residents said they wanted grocery store officials to take responsibility

for their own carts.

It was that City Council meeting that prompted Wednesday’s meeting at

the Neighborhood Community Center.