Shopping Carts in San Francisco Bay

September 19, 2017 2:29 AM

Oh well, shopping carts. In San Francisco Bay. What to do?

This needs a picture, but cant figure out how to include. Maybe too complicated? just imagine about 10 shopping carts in low tide mud in San Francisco Bay.

Question is: what to do? about shopping carts. All are from Costco that is upstream.

posted by breadbox to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (7 answers total)

Where are they specifically? If this is in San Francisco or another city with a 311 system, call 311 and report it. Otherwise, figure out who deals with illegal dumping in your city and call them. Then call back and follow up if it's not taken care of within the time they give you.
posted by zachlipton at 3:15 AM on September 19, 2017 [5 favorites]

Call COSTCO and ask them to come and get them. If they don't call some local media and tell them that you tried to get COSTCO to get them and they refused.
posted by mareli at 5:09 AM on September 19, 2017 [5 favorites]

I don't think it'll come to that, mareli. In my experience, most grocery stores have some kind of mechanism for collecting grocery carts around the neighborhood (either a paid staff member or someone who does it ad-hoc, under the table). They want the carts back; it costs money to replace them.

In the end it probably depends on how difficult the carts would be to retrieve. Try Costco first, and 311 if that doesn't work. No need to assume bad faith here.
posted by duffell at 6:41 AM on September 19, 2017 [7 favorites]

Yeah, grocery carts are expensive, and if a big company like Costco were trying to illegally dump a bunch of broken ones, they'd probably dump them in the Mariana Trench or something, not in shallow water where everyone could see them. They're very likely stolen from the store, and they'll send someone out to get them. Some stores have their own people who drive around in vans looking for their carts and some contract with companies to do it for them.
posted by ernielundquist at 6:46 AM on September 19, 2017 [4 favorites]

It might depend on where, specifically, in San Francisco Bay. Some areas are technically under National Park Service jurisdiction. It also matters if you're in the Bay Area but not in San Francisco. 311 won't be able to help you out of SF.

Call whoever is likely to be in charge of illegal dumping and they will handle it. This is probably what the store will do.

I worked at a store that had this happen, albeit not in SF. Someone stole twelve carts and dumped them in the Eureka slough. The city dragged them out and the cops returned them. The manager was very much: "Thanks...you shouldn't have..." As they were rusted and encrusted with mud and debris, we had the call the city to haul them away, again. FYI, carts are usually recyclable. Basically: call the city.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:42 AM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Your past question history indicates that you live in San Jose: illegal dumping in San Jose.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:47 AM on September 19, 2017

Some stores in the area have a service that collects carts for them. According to City of Fremont Cal Cart Retrieval can be contacted at 1-800-252-4613 and it seems like Costco is a client
posted by TwoWordReview at 7:56 AM on September 19, 2017 [2 favorites]