Solutions to cart problem can be found

There is no doubt that stray shopping carts are a nuisance in

Costa Mesa. Sitting abandoned on street corners and in bushes, they

are a blight on the landscape and a sign of ill care and disrespect

for the city.

The abandoned carts long have been a problem. Now, Costa Mesa

officials rightly are working on a serious solution.

As proposed, that solution would be a law requiring stores to

ensure that shopping carts remain on the stores’ properties. If not,

the consequences would be swift and fair: If more than five carts

from a single store are found in a year, the store would have to

install a containment system or help the city pay for a

cart-retrieval service. Stores on the East Coast have tackled this

problem, for instance, by building physical barriers that keep carts

by the front doors. To escape with one, a person would have to lift

the cart three or four feet into the air, certainly a deterrent for

the vast majority of people.

Yes, those barriers do mean carrying bags to cars or driving the

cars up to the doors. But the little bit of inconvenience is

well-worth enjoying a city free of the visual blight stray carts

cause.

Unfortunately, the early discussions about the law are missing,

for the most part, a key player: the owners and representatives of

the stores. At a recent meeting to discuss the idea, just five of 34

retailer representatives elected to attend, even though they will be

the most affected by this law. Representatives from Albertsons,

Stater Brothers, Grower’s Direct, Trader Joe’s and Target have all

been working with the city and deserve praise.

City officials now are planning to send out a mass mailing to

store owners with details of the proposed law. This time around,

every store in town that could be part of the problem, and therefore

part of the solution, should respond.

If they do not, they will deserve little sympathy when the law is

in place and they are punished for violating it.