Title
Abandoned Shopping Cart Retrieval Program Update
Description
This report provides the Community and Cultural Investment Subcommittee with an update on the Neighborhood Services Department's Abandoned Shopping Cart Retrieval Program.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Report
Summary
The Neighborhood Services Department's (NSD) Abandoned Shopping Cart Retrieval Program picks up abandoned shopping carts throughout the City of Phoenix. The program was designed to address increasing resident concerns regarding hazards to pedestrians and motorists, and the visual blight created by abandoned shopping carts in neighborhoods. The program provides a timely response to community complainants regarding carts abandoned on sidewalks, along rights-of-way and in alleys.
How the Program Works
Complaints can be submitted via NSD's phone, email, website or myPHX311 app. When a complaint for an abandoned shopping cart is received, program staff confirm the location and number of carts to be addressed, and forward a request to the current vendor, Arizona Cart Services (ACS). The contract with ACS provides two days from the time they receive the request to collect the cart and/or report back on the outcome of their attempt. Their reporting indicates if the cart(s) was found at the site, the number of carts collected, and whether the cart(s) were returned to an ACS contracted retailer. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-22, ACS average response time was 1.85 days.
In addition to responding to resident complaints, the cart retrieval vendor also performs strategic cart retrievals in areas that have been identified by NSD as focus areas for frequently abandoned carts. NSD works with residents, property/business owners, community stakeholders and other City departments to identify these focus areas to proactively address the safety and blight issues created by this activity. As part of the program, NSD also coordinates with external agencies or other City departments to retrieve abandoned shopping carts within their jurisdiction or site control.
Once the carts are removed, ACS returns them to the originating retailer. NSD educates retailers who utilize shopping carts regarding the issues their unattended carts can cause in surrounding neighborhoods. NSD encourages retailers to utilize services to retrieve their carts and advancing technologies to retain their carts within their property boundaries. Retailers can also contract directly with ACS to proactively retrieve their carts to prevent complaints being reported to the City. Retailers that do not have a contract with ACS are billed $50 per cart by the City.
Program History
The Abandoned Shopping Cart Retrieval Program was originally designed to be cost recovery through the revenue collected from fees billed to the retailers that did not have their own cart retrieval contracts, as few had contracted services in place to retrieve carts taken from their business premises. The fee was used as a tool to encourage retailers to implement measures to both prevent carts from being removed and to retrieve them when they are removed. As most large retailers contracted with the City's vendor to have carts collected, the annual number of billable carts declined significantly beginning in FY 2012-13. From FY 2015-16 forward, the Abandoned Shopping Cart Retrieval Program was no longer able to achieve cost recovery due to the continuing reduction in billable carts. By FY 2016-17, the program only recovered 28 percent of the cost. In 2017, the City Council approved an increase of the $25 retrieval fee to $50 to increase recovery of program expenses and further incentivize retailers to manage cart inventories.
From FY 2017-18 to FY 2019-20, combined cart retrievals from complaints and proactive collections averaged nearly 3,200 shopping carts collected annually, with average contract billing of $18,050, and average City billing to retailers of $7,358. This equates to a three-year average of 41 percent cost recovery. In FY 2020-21, abandoned cart retrievals rose to 5,798, an increase of 67 percent from the prior year. Contract billing for the year was $26,406 and City billing to retailers reached $9,700, or 37 percent cost recovery. For FY 2021-22, abandoned cart retrievals continued to rise up to a year end total of 9,253, an increase of 60 percent from the prior year. Contract billing for the year was $45,149 and City billing to retailers reached $25,800, or 57 percent cost recovery.
Current Program Status
NSD is seeing a continued increase in the number of abandoned shopping carts reported and retrieved year after year, with the most recent prior two fiscal years experiencing the most significant jumps. This past fiscal year, NSD was able to recover a higher percentage of costs associated with the program compared to the prior year, but the program still does not achieve full cost recovery. Additionally, NSD anticipates program costs to increase with the recently awarded new contract costs with ACS.
Furthermore, additional resources and efforts have been coordinated with the City’s PHX C.A.R.E.S. process related to filled shopping carts. NSD is responsible for retrieving the complaint, tagging the cart and creating a PHX C.A.R.E.S. case. After 24 hours of the cart being tagged, the Public Works Department will conduct their follow-up site visit, and will ultimately retrieval and dispose of the cart if found still at the site.
For the remainder of the fiscal year, NSD will continue to track, monitor and analyze the Abandoned Shopping Cart Retrieval Program. NSD staff will explore options to achieve full cost recovery, more effective approaches to educate retailers with higher cart retrievals and/or higher account balances on the importance of the program for Phoenix neighborhoods, and continue to identify targeted proactive retrievals in areas of the city staff see a higher concentration of complaints. The goal of the program is to not only timely respond to complaints of abandoned carts and reduce the appearance of blight in neighborhoods, but to also identify ways to reduce the number of carts being abandoned in neighborhoods and decreasing the need for cart retrieval services.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Alan Stephenson and the Neighborhood Services Department.