Crash Course In Trolley Collection

We've already talked about how abandoned shopping trolleys are dangerous - and would it seem to Coles is about to learn how expensive it is. This story is from October 15, 2008:

A BAYSWATER man is considering suing a giant supermarket chain after a car crash he believes was caused by a stray trolley left on a road at night.

The man says he has suffered continuing health problems since the accident.

His complaint comes in the wake of an outpouring of anger from Knox residents, upset over trolleys left dumped in their streets.

Craig Davies and a work colleague were travelling to the city for a business meeting at 7.30pm on June 25 when he suddenly saw a shopping trolley in the left lane of busy Burwood Highway.

Mr Davies said he swerved to avoid the trolley, smashing into the car in front of him, which in turn crashed into the car in front of it.

Lock and Load

It's amazing what fun you can find online.

Today I found this great piece on the poor an abused shopping trolley written in January by Louise Evans of The Australian:

THEY are unloved, abused, beaten and abandoned, yet we can't live without them.

They are the 21st-century equivalent of a donkey but even a beast of burden gets better treatment than the shopping trolley.
A television advertisement for NRMA Insurance was banned by the Advertising Standards Bureau because it showed boneheaded boys having shopping trolley races on a rooftop carpark and smashing their four-wheeled fun machine into a brick wall. Viewers complained the ad breached safety standards by showing "morons how to damage vehicles in car parks".

What about the damage to the shopping trolley? Just collateral.

A young mum with two nappy-wrapped screamers strapped in the back seat jumped out of her monster four-wheel-drive in fright after hearing a bang as she backed out of a small-car spot in a shopping centre car park. "Thank God it was only a trolley," she sighed as she pushed the offending tangle of metal in the direction of the escalator.

It's no wonder they all have wonky wheels, missing backs and mangled sides. The shopping trolley ranks lower on the food delivery chain than its equally abused and abandoned cousin the milk crate. At least you can sit on a milk crate.

Like all good piece of writing, there's some strong facts and figures to emerge:

• Woolworths says it loses 150,000 shopping trolleys a year to theft and damage
• It costs supermarkets $50,000,000 a year to keep shopping trolleys in adequate number in good repair

Wouldn't it be easier for shopping centre management and supermarkets to insists all trolleys have token operated locks?

Theft On Wheels

In researching the hazards and problems surrounding shopping trolleys, I came across this interesting paper called Preventing retail crime by Susan Geason and Paul R Wilson and published by the Australian Institute of Criminology in 1992.

Here's what it had to say about supermarket trolleys and crime:

Loss of shopping trolleys
Shopping carts have a way of disappearing, especially where customers walk to the store instead of driving.

In Australia shopping trolleys cost about $200 each and most supermarkets have about $25,000 worth of them at any given time. About 5 per cent of all supermarket shopping trolleys disappear (personal communication, Australian Supermarket Institute 1991).

Shopping cart corrals: Supermarkets have dealt with trolley disappearances in a number of ways, for example many stores have installed barriers to keep carts at the customer loading zone in front of the store, though this does not stop all trolley theft.

Some markets allow customers to take carts to their cars and send employees out to scour the neighbourhood for carts people have taken home; others offer rewards for finding lost carts.

Cart corrals allow people to use carts however they want, but encourage them to return them on their own. This is how they work. A customer walks over to the cart storage area and puts a coin or a token in a device that has locked a cart to the cart in front of it. The first cart is then freed and the customer can use it in the store and the parking lot. The customer's coin is returned when he or she pushes the cart back into the cart corral.

Although that report is quite a few years ago now, I don't believe the facts will have changed over much. It's a pity that such an obvious solution, identified 16 years ago has not resulted in universal action.

Trolley Dump 5

A lovely, tree line shade street, children arriving home from school - a sweet suburban scene marred by two abandoned shopping trolleys that are more than half a kilometre away from the nearest supermarket.

Trolley Dump 4

As if to illustrate Southport councillor Dawn Crichlow's point with respect to dumped shopping trolleys is this sight, taken only two blocks away from her office.



Dumped trolleys are like graffiti - they contribute to urban pollution and appearance of general carelessness, neglect and ultimately property and personal crime.

Why this is important is articulated in the 1982 article Broken Windows, the substance of which of which the New York Mayor used to dramatically reduce crime in the city.

By addressing the small issues of vandalism, reduces petty crime and, it can be argued, stops major crime as well.

This is just another reason why shopping trolleys should be locked.

Trolley Dump 3

Unlocked trolleys go astray at any time of day it would seem.

This picture below was taken at Robina Town Centre on Sunday, at a little after 10am - 30 minutes before the official opening time of the centre.

Phantom shoppers?

Who knows.

But there is one thing for certain. If the trolleys had token locks, they'd still be waiting in their corrals waiting for the first shopper of the day.

Dumping on trolley dumpers

The Gold Coast Bulletin had a little column piece in last Saturday's paper about trolley dumpage.



It's great to see that there is a recognition that this is a serious environmental problem.

Large shopping centres that serve a sizable population within walking distance will always experience this problem, unless those shops providing the trolleys have some locking system, dumpage and theft are going to be prevalent.

It would be nice if shopping centre management agencies would introduce them as part of their environmental commitment but if they won't, perhaps it is time for legislators to step in.

Trolley Dump 2

The good news:

18,000-plus people took part in the annual Gold Coast Marathon at the weekend.

The bad news: They all have to run past this:



Again a stray trolley adding to the actual and visual pollution.

And it's Wednesday and the the trolley is still there.

If there's anything good to come out of that at all is at least the trolley is being used as a bin...

Trolleys Not In The OK Corrall

Welcome to Surfers Paradise.

It's supposed to be the jewel in the crown of Gold Coast tourism but has recent copped criticism in the press over being a bit of a dump.

My husband and I like Surfers Paradise. We live nearby and like to go cycling during the weekends.

This time we remembered to bring a camera to record the number of dumped trolleys in the holiday precinct.

All the photographs in this post were taken Sunday, 22nd of June.

The above picture is not a nice introduction to the place is it?

But look! What do we have across the road from this trolley?

Two more trolleys dumped on disused building site.

There are two supermarkets within a two kilometre radius of this site and it doesn't take much to put the trolley back where you got it from. The only excuse I can find is ignorance and laziness.

And now, just a kilometre away from Chevron Island (where the above pictures were taken), on the eastern side of the Nerang River, we have this forlorn looking little model:



If that's not bad enough, this trolley was dumped in a park virtually across the road from the Coles Supermarket at the Chevron Renaissance shopping centre.

But I've saved the best (or should that be 'the worst') until last.

Where as these other shopping trolleys might eventually be wrangled back to their corral (by trailers towed by tractors or cars, causing pollution and CO2 emissions and that's another story), this trolley below (photo taken at the Broadwater in Southport) is in serious danger of turning into a hazard not only for people but also marine life.

Just take a look at how quickly the sand is beginning bury it.

Just remember, these pictures were taken from one suburb on one day.

One simple modification to the existing trolleys would fix this: All trolleys can be retrofitted to have a fix coin deposit locking systems.

One simple act of parliament of council bylaw could make this a reality.

If you agree, let me know by leaving a message in the comments below and then let your local councillor or state politician know that we want to do something about this problem