Grocery stores may be fined for having their trolleys stolen

Excerpts from a news report out of Oregon:

The City of Madras is proposing a new restriction on shopping carts that would fine grocery stores for carts stolen off their property. Many of those carts are ending up near homeless camps.

The City contacted grocery stores late last year requesting action to keep carts on property.

“When we started to see the relationship between shopping carts not being kept on the retailer’s property and then being used in ways that weren’t intended, we thought we needed to start figuring out a way to solve this problem,” Madras Community Development Director Nicholas Snead said.

“If the shopping cart is not on the property, it’s a $100 offense,” Snead said.

Is the proposed solution fair to grocery stores?

“Well, I don’t know that it’s fair. I think it’s a complex problem,” Snead said.