By John Hopkins<br><a href="mailto:john.hopkins@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail John</a>
They sat near the corner of Franklin and Fletcher streets in the City of Tonawanda for several days in February: a handful of grocery carts from a local supermarket.
One neighborhood woman became annoyed, seeing the carts sitting in the same spot for days on end, and contacted the store. When the carts were still sitting near the corner a few days later, she contacted City Hall.
Mayor Ron Pilozzi brought it up during a February informal meeting of the common council, where there was plenty of feedback from the councilmembers and Chief of Police Cindy Young.
“It’s one of those topics where, if it’s brought up, everyone else chimes in,” Pilozzi observed.
To some, the carts are simply a nuisance. For others, they bring down a neighborhood’s character.
Pilozzi said removing the carts from store property is stealing. However, Young said the store in question, Tops, won’t prosecute if a person is found walking off store property with one of its grocery carts. Pilozzi also believes that people who take the carts don’t leave them in front of their own homes. He noted one of them was recently abandoned in front of his driveway.
It’s particularly disheartening, Pilozzi said, because the city has worked hard with the parks and recreation and DPW to clean up the city.
“They take away from the cleanliness of the neighborhood,” Pilozzi said, understanding residents’ concerns. “It’s disrespectful for property owners, both the cart’s owner, and the homeowner where it’s left.”
City officials said the two biggest offenders are located in downtown: the Niagara Street locations of Tops and Rite Aid. Shopping carts at Walgreens, another downtown store, are equipped with a mechanism that locks up the wheels when they reach a certain distance from the store.
Council members noted the carts are expensive, and representatives from two local stores agree. Pilozzi said he was told Tops pays $136 per cart.
A review of three Web sites where shopping carts are sold found only one, www.premierecarts.com, that offered prices for a large quantity of shopping carts. Most mid- to large-size carts range between $95-$113 for a purchase of 100 wire carts. A standard-sized plastic cart costs $107 each in a lot of 100.
“Certainly, if there’s (a cart) on someone’s property, call us and we’ll pick it up,” Cheryl Slavinsky, a Rite Aid spokesperson said. “We’d be happy to have them back.”
Businesses are contacted and provided the locations of wayward carts, when spotted by Tonawanda police officers, Chief of Police Cindy Young told the council. If a cart is still in the same location five days after a business has been notified, the DPW is contacted to retrieve them, she added.
“Tops told a citizen they’ll pick them up,” Young added. “But they’re not responsive when we notify them.”
A manager at the Tops supermarket at 150 Niagara St. referred all questions to the company’s corporate headquarters, where messages left with the media relations department were not returned.
However, Ann McCarthy, a spokesperson for Wegmans, told the News how their Niagara Falls Boulevard supermarket handles lost grocery carts.
“The store has, as part of its protocol, two people who drive around the neighborhood and retrieve abandoned carts from the nearby streets,” McCarthy said, adding the employees make their rounds usually twice a week.
Noting that the carts are costly to replace, McCarthy said it’s in Wegmans’ best interests to retrieve the carts. Residents are encouraged to call Wegmans to report the location of carts, and the store will send someone to pick them up.
Not only are the carts costly to replace, at upwards of hundreds of dollars each, McCarthy said there’s another important factor for taking abandoned carts off the streets.
“We don’t want to contribute to a neighborhood nuisance,” McCarthy explained. “Besides, we need them for our customers.”
After speaking with the district manager, Slavinsky said the local Rite Aid stores “routinely” collect shopping carts. She added they are dealt with on a case-by-case basis — for example, if a group of carts is found abandoned at one location, such as a bus stop or an apartment building,
“We encourage residents to report where our missing carts are,” Slavinsky said. “Certainly if there’s one on someone’s property, call us and we’ll pick it up.”
At February’s council meeting, it was suggested that store representatives be summoned to a future meeting to discuss the problem. That hasn’t happened yet, but Pilozzi said he has spoken to an assistant manager at the Niagara Street Tops about half a dozen times, and he’s been “playing phone tag” with Ron Ferry, regional director of operations for Tops.
Pilozzi added he made “some inroads” with the store on Thursday. After observing another four to six carts at the Franklin-Fletcher intersection that morning, he notified assistant manager Scott Davis. By lunch time, they were gone.
“But the mayor shouldn’t be calling Tops to get them to collect their carts,” Pilozzi said.
Council President Carl Zeisz suggested last month simply throwing abandoned carts in the garbage and second ward council member Chuck Gilbert noted, at $10-20 per ton, they’re not worth much as scrap.
“I’m sick and tired of seeing our city innundated with them,” Pilozzi said. “You can’t go down a major artery without seeing one.”
Contact night city editor John Hopkins at 693-1000, ext. 150.
