City of Columbia looks to fine people for abandoned grocery carts

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Taking a cart from a local grocery store in Columbia could soon equal a fine of up to $500.

The Food Lion on Devine Street says carts going missing from their store is a big problem.

"I know we ordered carts not too long ago and I want to say we had like 300 carts, and now this is how much we've got. We have less than 60," said store employee Eryn Myers.

Myers has worked for Food Lion for the last two years and says her management will sometimes use their own resources to corral their missing carts.

"We'll have other employees that have large trucks, take time out of their work day to go drive around and look for carts, or we'll get phone calls saying 'hey, we've got carts in our neighborhood," Myers explained.

Keeping the carts at local grocery stores like Food Lion is something the city of Columbia wants to help with too.

"There's a litter component, a lot of these end up on the side of the road or in our creeks so it's just important for us to tackle that," said District III Council member, Will Brennan.

Brennan explains the city is amending an ordinance to make sure shopping carts are not being moved from the stores that own them. The amendments to the current ordinance would allow the city to issue fines of up to $500 for those taking the carts.

Businesses will have to pay retrieval costs if they do not answer the city within 24 of a cart being found.

"At the end of the day, we're hoping we can spur shopping centers to put those barriers in place or the magnets that make it more difficult to take carts," Brennan stated.

The ordinance passed a second reading by the city council on Tuesday and will go through one more reading to decide if the shopping carts ordinance will be pushed into action.