As residents of North Oakland, we are concerned about an ongoing problem that we have been experiencing with The Grocery Outlet store at 2900 Broadway in Oakland. This has been an ongoing problem and neighborhood concern for well over 3 years.
After complaining many times to store management, it is clear that the store does not have a plan to prevent the removal of shopping carts from the premises. They also do not respond to requests to retrieve the shopping carts once they have been abandoned in the surrounding residential neighborhood.
Upon speaking with Marlene Grant at store headquarters in June, I was told that there was "nothing that they could do about the problem" and that they would not change the way they currently operate.
Looking at the Alameda County Shopping Cart Ordinance Chapter 12.10, it's obvious what a store like the Grocery Outlet should be doing to prevent this blight problem. According to the ordinance, a store is required to develop a plan on how to notice customers about not removing carts and implement preventive measures and retrieval methods.
Their admitted & willful neglect has a tremendously negative effect on the appearance and the safety of our neighborhood.
Here are some photos (all taken on the same day) of our neighborhood:
Shopping carts collecting at the tip of a blind
curve are a serious traffic hazard.
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Shopping carts accumulating in front of homes
affect property values.
(this house is still on the market and it comes with a complimentary shopping cart from the Grocery Outlet)
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Our street sign welcomes visitors with an unsightly shopping cart from the Grocery Outlet. This one is full of trash.
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This shopping cart has almost been pushed into the creek.
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This shopping cart is in the creek. We had to call the County Flood Control to get it removed.
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The Grocery Outlet uses shopping carts from many different stores.
The carts in the parking lot display the logos and phone numbers from many different locations.
The carts are not locked up at night and are easily removed from the property. There is no signage informing customers that it is illegal to remove the carts from the premises.
These photos were taken in front of the store:
Yellow cart from Safeway Green cart from Shop Online
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Red cart from Michael's, silver from Albertson's
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Silver cart from Safeway
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Red cart from Safeway
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Blue cart from Food Maxx
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Silver & green cart from Lucky's
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Orange cart from Home Depot
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Green cart from Long's Drugs
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The big question is: Does the City of Oakland have any means of helping us deal with this problem?