Coos Bay adopts shopping cart ordinance. I told you all this several years ago, but I’ll re-post to benefit those readers who’ve just come aboard. Any US store that offers the convenience of a shopping cart needs to employ the standard tactic used by German shopping centers (at least, that’s the way it was the last time I was there). Shopping carts are locked up in a corral outside, and the only way to get one is to insert a coin that releases the locking mechanism. After loading your goodies into your car, you return the cart to the corral, shoving it into the last cart in line, re-locking it, and your deposit is returned. I think the US model would be modernized to accept and dispense all forms of payment, i.e., cash, credit, and debit cards. The deposit amount and subsequent refund must also be more substantial than the one Deutschmark I remember from Germany. If it’s not, bums will keep ripping off the carts, assuming the dollar or two spent to unlock the cart is the cost of doing business. Assuming the stores are losing $200 each time a cart is stolen, the required deposit should be $10 or $20, keeping in mind that if the cost is too much of a financial burden on the low-income budget, once the patron has saved up the universal price of the shopping cart deposit, they’ll always get it back for use the next time as long as the cart is returned correctly.
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