Title
Abandoned Shopping Cart Program Update
Description
This report requests the Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee recommend City Council approval for Neighborhood Services Department to negotiate the current contract with Arizona Cart Services (ACS) and to amend the contract to include billing cart retrieval services for abandoned shopping carts returned to retailers with established cart retrieval contracts.
THIS ITEM IS FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION.
Report
Summary
The Neighborhood Services Department’s (NSD) Abandoned Shopping Cart Retrieval Program retrieves 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 complaints regarding carts abandoned on sidewalks, along rights-of-way and in alleys.
In 2007, the City Council authorized the City Manager to establish the program under a cost recovery model. NSD contracted with a vendor to retrieve abandoned carts left outside the premises or parking areas of retail establishments. The program collected a $20 per cart fee billed to retailers that did not have their own cart retrieval contracts. At that time, few retailers had contracted services in place to retrieve carts taken from their business premises. In addition to providing cost recovery, the fee was recognized as a tool to encourage retailers to implement measures to both prevent carts from being removed and to retrieve them when they are removed. In 2012, City Council approved NSD’s request to increase the cart retrieval fee from $20 to $25 to maintain full cost recovery.
Over the next five years, program expenses increased while the number of billable carts decreased. In 2017, City Council approved an increase of the $25 retrieval fee to $50 to further encourage retailers to take action to reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts, and to eliminate the cost recovery model. In addition, NSD's vendor, Arizona Cart Services (ACS), increased their fees to include costs to the City for retrieving carts for retailers with their own retrieval contracts.
Since 2017, the number of abandoned shopping carts reported and retrieved increased substantially, from 2,937 in 2017 to 8,604 in 2022. The majority of the increase, 5,142, were shopping carts belonging to retailers with their own contracts for cart retrieval, increasing the City's contract costs by more than 127 percent, from $21,488 to $48,875, yet providing no offset revenue to account for those costs. Due to the increased program expenses and insufficient efficacy of retailer cart retrieval services, NSD is requesting to negotiate with ACS to amend their contract to include a cart retrieval fee for retailers with established cart retrieval contracts.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Gina Montes and the Neighborhood Services Department.