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The story behind Delaware’s wandering shopping carts and who’s to blame

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The story behind Delaware’s wandering shopping carts and who’s to blame

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Among the discarded refuse decorating the yellowing grass along Frenchtown Road near New Castle was a shopping cart that had seen better days.

It lay on its side, exposing to anyone caring to notice a fading message boasting “ALWAYS LOW PRICES Always” at Walmart – the nearest store about a mile and a half away.

“Nah, I don’t care about that,” said a man sitting at a nearby bus stop when asked for his thoughts on the growing number of ditched shopping buggies. He soon boarded a DART bus headed to Miller Road Shopping Center near Wilmington.

Remaining, however, was the metal and plastic cart – just one of many across Delaware and beyond that are taken from stores and not returned, ending up abandoned in increasing numbers.

In other parts of the country, the number of abandoned carts has spurred legislation.

No such state laws were found in Delaware, according to the state Department of Justice, but where these laws have been enacted, they sometimes enact fines on shoppers who take carts. Other times, legislation is passed requiring wheels lock when a cart is taken from a store lot, and in some cases lawmakers are going after businesses by imposing fines on them when municipalities have to pay money to recover their stolen goods.

Shoppers interviewed by Delaware Online/The News Journal overwhelmingly blame laziness for the buggies not being returned to cart corrals usually located in shopping lots. But, some experts say the increase in people taking them off the lots shows people’s economic constraints. Some of these carts are later sold; sometimes they’re repurposed for such things as movable storage; and other times people without reliable transportation use them to move their belongings or groceries.

“This behavior could also be an indicator of one’s attitudes toward corporate property,” said Jennifer D’Angelo, an assistant professor in the marketing department at Texas Christian University. “Some people may feel that taking a cart from a large retailer has little impact on the company’s bottom line.

“Further, from a social norm perspective, when people see others taking shopping carts, they may infer that this behavior is acceptable, magnifying the problem.”

‘It’s me being lazy’

As Pierre Balerus returned a shopping buggy to a cart corral located in Wilmington’s ShopRite parking lot Thursday afternoon, he gave his theory of why some don’t.

“They’re lazy,” said the Wilmington resident as he motioned to a cart corral, adding: “Sometimes it’s just right here and they still don’t return it.”

Balerus said he always returns his carts to their proper places because he doesn’t like it when others don’t. He also doesn’t like leaving them out because they can damage parked vehicles.

Not far from where Balerus had just finished putting his cart away was another shopper who agreed with the lazy theory. She gave a little more insight — but not her name.

“There’s always a reason for everything,” she said citing frigid temperatures as an example of why some wouldn’t return carts to their proper place.

“I know sometimes I don’t feel like it and it’s me being lazy,” she said bursting out in laughter.

The woman said she feels bad leaving the carts near where she last used them. She then got serious — even lifting her index finger in the air for emphasis — and exclaimed: “But at the same time, I know people are hired to get the carts. So I know that somebody’s job. So I think that helps too.”

Resentment at increasing costs

Christina Scott, a professor of psychological sciences at Whittier College, said there has been an increase in missing shopping carts, pointing to a 2023 CNN article on how some communities paid tens of thousands of dollars to collect shopping carts that had gone missing from store properties.

“No, you aren’t making this up,” Scott said.

In addition to explaining how some people reappropriate carts, Scott said some people may also be experiencing resentment or a sense of entitlement as they face a dramatic increase in grocery costs.

“The feeling of ‘not getting their money’s worth’ may prompt some individuals to walk off with a shopping cart, only to abandon it several blocks away,” she said.

There may be a sense of retribution in knowing that the store will have to spend money to retrieve the missing cart, she said. Imagine the person who is infuriated that they can’t afford groceries for their family, so they deliberately wheel a cart three blocks away and abandon it.

“Unfortunately, it shows a lack of responsibility and/or remorse for taking the shopping cart and possibly a sense that the individual’s need is greater — and more important — than the needs of other shoppers or the retailer,” Scott added.

Citing the CNN article, Scott said carts cost about $250 each, so losing even 10% of their inventory would be a substantial cost. 

The missing carts also create impacts on shoppers, such as facing a lack of buggies or an increase in costs to replace them.

Store incentives

Some stores have carts whose wheels lock when a shopper passes a certain point.

While this could prevent theft, it comes with other problems such as when a shopper is parked near the end of the store lot. That’s because once the wheels lock, the shopper can’t move the cart to their vehicle or return it.

So it remains abandoned where it is locked.

Lance A. Bettencourt, a professor of professional practice at Texas Christian University’s Neeley School of Business, said the most interesting example of a store thinking unconventionally about the shopping cart challenge is Aldi.

“Aldi requires a deposit of a quarter to retrieve a shopping cart and the deposit is returned to the shopper once the cart is returned to the cart corral,” Bettencourt said. “Obviously, getting a quarter back adds a small benefit, but the more important factor here is probably that Aldi has made it very clear to its customers that it is their role to return a shopping cart to the corral and that this role is very important to helping Aldi to keep prices low which, in turn, are passed on to customers by way of lower prices.”

There seems to be something to this, according to Eddie Herron who was shopping with his wife, Leah, at the Aldi near Elkton, Maryland, last week.

“I love it,” the Bear resident said about the quarter deposit. “The carts get back.”

Herron said he doesn’t like when people abandon their carts because the buggies sometimes strike vehicles and scratch them.

“So I like that you have to bring them back,” he said. “Some people still leave the quarter in and don’t even bring them back, but most people do.”

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.

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