Carts a tough steal at new stores

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

When double-decker Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores open in two months on the Ke'eaumoku superblock, the dense neighborhood will be filled with shoppers and traffic, but probably not the typical mess of errant shopping carts.

Wal-Mart and and Sam's Club are scheduled to open on Ke'eaumoku Street in October. A California company is providing the stores with an electronic wheel-lock system to prevent the loss of carts in the densely populated area. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

San Diego-based Carttronics is installing the system on the hundreds of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club carts, the latest attempt to reduce shopping-cart theft in Hawai'i.

AWOL carts are a big problem. They wind up not just on sidewalks, but in Hawai'i streams and parks and are known to collect outside residential buildings near stores.

Only a few retailers in the state use anti-theft cart devices at select stores, including the Pali Safeway, Waipahu Daiei and a few Longs Drugs stores.

Some use the electronic brake system, others have used a refundable deposit to entice cart returns. Most retailers are resigned to pay collectors to round up carts as much as several times a week.

"It's a huge problem," said Carol Pregill, executive director of the Retail Merchants of Hawai'i trade group. "They are being stolen faster than they can be found."

The state's largest supermarket chain, Foodland, said it spends nearly $85,000 a year to replace lost or stolen carts that cost about $125 each. The company also operates a cart hotline and has three full-time employees picking up carts seven days a week.

Carttronics estimates that 1.8 million carts are "borrowed" in the United States every year, and that retailers annually pay $117 million to retrieve them.

Last year, the Honolulu City Council attempted to address the problem by proposing a $25 per-cart fine against retailers that didn't retrieve abandoned carts within three days after city authorities notified them of a cart on public property. The bill did not pass.

Cynthia Lin, communications director for Wal-Mart, gives a tour of the new store on Ke'eaumoku Street scheduled to open in October with an anti-theft system to keep carts within the store boundary lines. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

The big-box Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores on Ke'eaumoku will be the two biggest retailers in one of the most dense urban Honolulu settings.

Carttronics' system uses sensors embedded along store parking garage and property lines. Carts that are rolled or carried over sensors release wheel brakes. Signs and yellow striping caution customers to keep carts within boundary lines. Employees can release locked carts by remote control.

The anti-theft system is part of Wal-Mart's effort to make sure store operations run smoothly. "This will help us ensure that the shopping carts stay on site, and don't wander off into the neighborhood," said company spokeswoman Cynthia Lin. "I think that's something the community will appreciate."

Some area residents have complained that the stores are not appropriate for the area, and will create traffic and noise nightmares. Others are eager for the giant discounter and member's-only food and merchandise store to open.

Other improvements Wal-Mart is making to the area include widened streets, new traffic signals, underground utilities, a taxi lane, trolley stop and 1,700 parking stalls.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.