In addition to facing serious in-store thefts, retailers across the country are also seeing more and more shopping carts disappear. Some of these cases are caused by customers leaving their shopping carts in a mess and not knowing where they are, but more often, shopping carts are stolen deliberately. Many states and cities are now taking various measures, including fines of up to $2,500.
Statistics show that about 2 million shopping carts disappear from stores each year, and businesses are estimated to spend $175 million each year to replace them, including purchasing new shopping carts and hiring someone to collect scattered shopping carts. To prevent this, some supermarkets have installed anti-theft devices on shopping carts, which will automatically lock if they leave the store more than a certain distance.
In addition to bringing catastrophic problems to the retail industry, local governments have also suffered. Shopping carts that have been abandoned have occupied intersections, sidewalks and bus stops, and some have been abandoned in streams and ditches.
As the situation becomes more serious, in addition to trying to prevent shopping carts from leaving the store, many states have proposed and passed bills hoping to solve this problem through legal means.
Among all states, Illinois has the highest fine for shopping cart theft, which is $2,500, which depends on the price of the shopping cart and the criminal record of the thief. If you are charged with a misdemeanor for theft, you may even be sentenced to one year in prison. That said, Chicago, a major city in Illinois, generally only fines $200 for shopping cart thefts.
California’s response is that if a shopper “intends to temporarily or permanently deprive the owner or retailer of ownership,” the fine can be as high as $1,000, or even sentenced to six months in prison. San Jose, a city in the state, implemented new regulations last month, requiring retailers with more than 76 shopping carts to have a prevention plan.
In Florida, stealing a shopping cart from a retailer’s parking lot may result in a misdemeanor charge, and the amount of the fine will increase depending on how long the thief has the shopping cart, up to $1,000 or more and a year in prison.
Texas considers any shopping cart theft a Class C misdemeanor, which means the fine is not too high, usually a fine of $500. However, if the thief already has other criminal records, it may be upgraded to Class B, with a fine of up to $2,000 or 180 days in jail, or both.
