Shopping Trolley crackdown!

You’re kidding right? So 350 meters away in each instance (according to Google Maps)? Were the mechanisms damaged? How long have they been there fore? Do you know if the user intended to return the trolley the next time they go shopping? And how many is “some”? Even I might go and get them for 350 meters and a dollar or two per trolley.

You will be hard pressed to convince me that any pay per use trolleys are more than a very small percentage of errant trolleys.

No idea, just seen them there. The Florey Drive stop is a popular place for trolleys because the 313 bus does not go into Kippax. Have seen both Aldi and Woolworths pay trolleys (yes Woolwoths does it too in some places) in this location, but gather being so close to the shops and being a regular dumping ground the trolley collectors, must do the rounds so they never stay long.

As for the proportion of abandoned trolleys with pay mechanisms compared to those without, I would say I have seen very few with the mechanisms, that said those with the pay mechanism also make up a significantly smaller portion of the trolley population. As mentioned I doubt those that take trolleys for a walk really give a stuff about loosing $1 or $2.

maxblues said :

Because we have had these trolleys over 10 years and do not know of anyone offering a conversion service. What would you have us do with our old trolleys…dump them in a lake?. Two dollars is hardly a deterrent these days anyway when a trolley can be worth over $500. If you look at the photo accompanying the post you will see a dodgy character with hoodie and sunglasses who obviously is not amused at having his image recorded.

You might want to ask Aldi where they get theirs done. You don’t need a new trolley, just a little locking device attached to the handle. It looks like to would cost about $10 to fit. It would pay itself back very quickly.

A few years ago, a colleague was cycling to work, rounded a corner and hit an abandoned shopping trolley. She suffered a severe head injury that took years of surgery and rehabilitation.

Note to Woolworths/Coles/IGA: this was NOT an Aldi trolley. I have never seen an abandoned Aldi trolley. The $2 locking system does work.

If you shop at W/C/IGA, the cost of abandoned and vandalised shopping trolleys is factored into the price of the goods you buy.

Blen_Carmichael said :

zorro29 said :

Good point #1

As was mentioned elsewhere, at our local in Sydney, they have that electronic wheel that stops you at certain points from taking the trolley any further…At any rate, whatever it takes to get people to stop using them as their personal transporting devices/removalists.

You’ve never heard of this mob, have you?

http://www.hrc.act.gov.au/res/Response%20to%20CM%20Shopping%20Trolleys.pdf

Thanks for posting the link, a telling exposition on the law of human rights as it applies to shopping trolley litter.

zorro29 said :

Good point #1

As was mentioned elsewhere, at our local in Sydney, they have that electronic wheel that stops you at certain points from taking the trolley any further…At any rate, whatever it takes to get people to stop using them as their personal transporting devices/removalists.

You’ve never heard of this mob, have you?

http://www.hrc.act.gov.au/res/Response%20to%20CM%20Shopping%20Trolleys.pdf

Does the trolley reporting even work? I’ve reported a couple, not even that far from the mall as I live fairly close, and they were still there for ages. I don’t bother anymore.

OK so you’ve seen lots of errant ALDI trolleys have you? And I wasn’t suggesting that all offenders would bring the trolleys back. I was suggesting that someone seeing the trolley on their walk to the shops (eg, young kids) would bring the trolley along with them to make one or two bucks. Obviously it won’t fix the problem entirely and some mechanisms will get busted but the cost of repairing the mechanism surely would be less than the cost of collecting an impounded trolley.

Yep seen some just off Florey Drive in Macgregor near the first bus stop. At least though the ferals think to move them away from the road into the foot path laneway. I have also seen one recently near my old mums place on Catchpole Street in Macquarie.

You have got to be out of your f*&king mind.

The ACT Government does this? Seriously? And employs people to to it to boot?

No seriously. They do this?

Deref said :

maxblues said :

We have had two trolleys stolen from our stores in the last week. We have looked for them because we can’t afford to lose them at that rate. No doubt the gubbermint will find one and we will be fined rather than the bastards who stole them.

Are all your trolleys the kind with the $2 lock?

If not, why not?

maxblues said :

We have had two trolleys stolen from our stores in the last week. We have looked for them because we can’t afford to lose them at that rate. No doubt the gubbermint will find one and we will be fined rather than the bastards who stole them.

Deref said :

maxblues said :

We have had two trolleys stolen from our stores in the last week. We have looked for them because we can’t afford to lose them at that rate. No doubt the gubbermint will find one and we will be fined rather than the bastards who stole them.

Are all your trolleys the kind with the $2 lock?

If not, why not?

Deref said :

maxblues said :

We have had two trolleys stolen from our stores in the last week. We have looked for them because we can’t afford to lose them at that rate. No doubt the gubbermint will find one and we will be fined rather than the bastards who stole them.

Are all your trolleys the kind with the $2 lock?

If not, why not?

Are all your trolleys the kind with the $2 lock?

If not, why not?

Deref said :

maxblues said :

We have had two trolleys stolen from our stores in the last week. We have looked for them because we can’t afford to lose them at that rate. No doubt the gubbermint will find one and we will be fined rather than the bastards who stole them.

Are all your trolleys the kind with the $2 lock?

If not, why not?

Because we have had these trolleys over 10 years and do not know of anyone offering a conversion service. What would you have us do with our old trolleys…dump them in a lake?. Two dollars is hardly a deterrent these days anyway when a trolley can be worth over $500. If you look at the photo accompanying the post you will see a dodgy character with hoodie and sunglasses who obviously is not amused at having his image recorded.

I’ve dobbed a few into trolley tracker but never been picked for the dobber in prize. that’s a shame because $1000 would be handy any time.

maxblues said :

We have had two trolleys stolen from our stores in the last week. We have looked for them because we can’t afford to lose them at that rate. No doubt the gubbermint will find one and we will be fined rather than the bastards who stole them.

Are all your trolleys the kind with the $2 lock?

If not, why not?

We have had two trolleys stolen from our stores in the last week. We have looked for them because we can’t afford to lose them at that rate. No doubt the gubbermint will find one and we will be fined rather than the bastards who stole them.

Good point #1

As was mentioned elsewhere, at our local in Sydney, they have that electronic wheel that stops you at certain points from taking the trolley any further. I haven’t tried it out but I know the wheel makes steering more annoying!

At any rate, whatever it takes to get people to stop using them as their personal transporting devices/removalists. Another example of the many getting punished because of the few.

How many trolleys weren’t collected? If it takes over 2 weeks and 2 reports to the ‘Fix My Street’ people to get a single trolley collected, I’d like to see the ones that are still in the targeted areas that were too much red tape to collect. It takes one Ranger to sticker the trolley and another to collect it 2 days later. What is the point of placing a sticker on the abandoned trolley anyway? It’s not like supermarket workers see one on their way to work and throw it in the back of their car.

Perhaps we could have a ban on trolleys in the ACT too? Surely they’re a large burden on the environment polluting our lakes, rivers, and grassy areas…

beedlebum said :

This guy in Hawaii had a more extreme ‘solution’ to the shopping trolley issue:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510398/Hawaiian-politician-Tom-Brower-uses-SLEDGEHAMMER-smash-homeless-belongings.html

No, this guy in Hawaii used his privileged status as a lawmaker to deliberately destroy the meagre possessions of homeless people. In other words, he pretty much defines the term “douchebag”.

I wonder how many trolleys are ones requiring a gold coin to use? If all supermarkets did this, most trolleys would make their way back to the bays and would be a nice little earner for kids to return any stragglers that are further away. It would also stop woollies customers putting their trolleys in ALDI bays making it harder to return ALDI trolleys!

Bulldust the trolleys that are an ‘issue’ are the ones that people decide are theirs to walk home with, then dump. These scumbags are not going to be too worried about walking back to get their $1 coin, if they were they would probably smash the mechanism anyway or find some other inventive way to get their money back.

How supermarkets are meant to even try and stop this is beyond me. Electronic wheel clamps maybe, but what M0les didn’t mention is in the UK, the big supermarkets/hypermarkets are normally in standalone centres with fences around them and gates for pedestrians, so quite easy to put in place mechanism to stop trolley theft when everyone going on foot needs to go out defined exits in the fence. Another method I’ve seen include putting down grate system, bit like what you see on travelators that grab the wheel, but again only works where people have no choice but to walk over it.

You don’t see these kind of mechanisms on the smaller supermarkets on the high street, which are more akin to what we have here (just normally smaller) in that they are basically open to the street. Very hard to stop someone stealing a trolley then.

This guy in Hawaii had a more extreme ‘solution’ to the shopping trolley issue:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510398/Hawaiian-politician-Tom-Brower-uses-SLEDGEHAMMER-smash-homeless-belongings.html

I wonder how many trolleys are ones requiring a gold coin to use? If all supermarkets did this, most trolleys would make their way back to the bays and would be a nice little earner for kids to return any stragglers that are further away. It would also stop woollies customers putting their trolleys in ALDI bays making it harder to return ALDI trolleys!

Aye!
When I lived in Cambridge a decade ago, the latest gigantic Tesco store had electronic wheel clamps on the trolleys that engaged when they ventured beyond the carpark. Just as well as this store was half a stone’s throw from the Cam. Seeing the staggeringly large pile of recovered bike and trolley carcass float-past the Pike and Eel on a barge, I can see why they’d go to those lengths.

You’re assuming that they’re trying to solve the problem. They might just be trying to give the supermarkets a financial incentive to do something about this themselves instead of relying on a publicly funded service to clean up after them.

I can’t help reading this and imagining “shopping cart cowboys”, rounding up herds of trolleys with a crack of their whip.

I’m still trying to decide whether they’d be riding horses or… maybe bikes? Or those motorised scooters?

Another case of illogical thinking by the government..

The problem is the people dumping the trolleys no matter what the supermarkets do to try to prevent it, impounding the trolleys is not going to solve the problem. It’s like impounding the bus because a passenger got on without paying.

They apparently know all the common places where they are dumped, why are the rangers not setting up shop there and fining the lazy SOBs who dump them there. Might be because there are only about 2 rangers in the ACT.