Abandoned shopping carts are target of $50,000 Napa city program

Yet these cast-aside carts are a problem that Napa continues to face, a problem that contributes to blight, according Molly Rattigan, deputy city manager.

“It feels like it’s abandoned property. It feels like garbage,” she said.

While Napa has typically relied on city staff to pick up and return castoff carts, it recently contracted with a company called CarTrac to take over the job.

in the past, larger chain stores in Napa have paid vendors such as CarTrac to collect their specific shopping carts. But Rattigan thinks a city-sponsored program will work better.

“We are looking for the most cost-efficient way to take care of the problem and not put substantial city staffing resources into it, so we can focus on other priorities,” she said. “From an economy of scale, having a service is much simpler for us and the community and more cost-efficient.”

Under its deal with the city, CartTrac will pick up and return abandoned carts from any location. Residents can report the wayward carts at the city’s online service center.

Until now, the city hasn’t been tracking the number of shopping carts it picked up, said Rattigan.

“We have no idea because we’ve just been sporadically picking (carts) up and returning them,” she said. “At times, we’ve had as many as 90 carts in our corporate yard over a two-month period.”

CarTrac will now provide that data. Indeed, after the first day of CarTrac’s new Napa program, it had already picked up and returned 29 carts, according to Rattigan.

Funded with a $50,000 budget, CarTrac is contracted to work at least 10 hours a week for the city of Napa. The city pays CarTrac $20 for each cart retrieved and returned. Cart retrievers are typically independent workers driving their own vehicles.

Like many Napans, Lisa Poppen doesn’t appreciate abandoned shopping carts. Poppen and her neighbors in downtown Napa provide content for an Instagram page called Streets of Napa. Besides posting photos of city streets in need of repair, the page also features photos of castoff carts as seen around town.

“The abandoned shopping cart problem in Napa is prolific,” said Poppen. “Target and Walmart are the biggest offenders,” she added, but carts from other merchants can also be found.

“I think that stores could be more mindful to employ people to collect carts and bring them back inside on a regular basis. Businesses should prioritize collecting carts and bringing them in, so that people aren’t walking off of them in the first place.”

“I do appreciate that the city’s going to try to address the issue,” Poppen continued, but “the businesses should share some responsibility. It’s unfortunate that this is (part of) the landscape of the city.”

Napan Mark Gardner echoed Poppen’s comments. 

Abandoned carts are “an ongoing real problem, along with illegal dumping,” wrote Gardner, who had questions about how CarTrac’s program will work.

“What are our needs in Napa?” Gardner asked. “I would prefer a pilot study for a few thousand dollars, say for one month, and see how many carts CarTrac scoops up, before committing $50K for a year.”

Gardner also wondered about any garbage or items left in the carts. Is garbage removal included with the CarTrac service, or would workers leave the carts’ contents on the street? he asked.