What? Business-hostile Chico moves forward with a new ordinance to punish stores for having their shopping carts stolen

5 Responses to “What? Business-hostile Chico moves forward with a new ordinance to punish stores for having their shopping carts stolen”

1. 

   Suzanne Wong September 10, 2023 at 11:33 am #

   It’s true that the stores need to take responsibility for securing their carts. The Chico Community Watch guy used to cruise around Chico and pick them up or they would be retrieved during a bi-monthly ‘camp’ clean-up; they would be taken to the city ‘yard’ where the stores would -eventually, maybe-pick them up; there was no charge to the stores for this picking up or storage. If my car gets stolen and is then found it would be picked up by a tow company and taken to their yard and stored until I was notified. If I wanted to retrieve my car I would then owe the tow company for the tow as well as the storage. Yes there will be a scofflaw who’s going to swipe a cart but if they’re not secured at night or not retrieved from the parking lot in a timely way they become free game for theft. Citizens can do their part by, at least, putting carts into their ‘holding pens’. Retailers have been getting off easy for too long.

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2. 

   Robert Fromm September 11, 2023 at 4:57 am #

   I have an idea? How about the city police do their jobs? And crack down on the idiots who are stealing them? And fine then? ,🤯

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     Juanita Sumner September 11, 2023 at 7:39 am #

     Thanks Robert, Suzanne’s comment bothered me – another case of penalizing the victim. Every store I shop at has to hire employees to wrangle carts, cost which they pass along to the consumer. Most of the stores I shop at provide corrals and even have their carts brought inside – space they pay property taxes on but are not allowed to display merchandise – a loss added to the cost of goods. One store I shop at will not allow carts out the door, which means, wherever I’m parked, I have to tote a box of oftentimes breakables all the way to wherever I park my car. Should I take my little red wagon? Should I take a weapon to beat back the “scofflaws”? Cause it’s not just one “scofflaw”, there’s a fucking army of them out there.

     Where does it end? Should we penalize homeowners for stuff stolen out of their yards and draped all over Bidwell Park? Institute a “victim fee”?

     Yeah, we have to pay to recover our cars – that involves a tow truck – shopping carts can be rounded up in the back of a pick-up truck. I would say, have an ordinance that requires businesses to have them picked up, but no more fines for carts “found” by city of Chico. Oh yeah, now that they’re worth money, the cops will pick them up. Or will the city have public works crews out there trolling for fines? They are stolen property, and they shouldn’t be ransomed by the revenue-hungry city of Chico.

     Like my husband says, first the COVID scam shutdown, the supply chain “issues”, they’re not allowed to stop shoplifters, just add another nail. You pay for it. Pretty soon a bag of groceries at Winco will cost $100.

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3. 

   Suzanne Wong September 11, 2023 at 10:03 pm #

   Alternately, the stores could cruise around town and pick up the carts themselves.

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     Juanita Sumner September 12, 2023 at 6:23 am #

     Well, that’s what I suggested – read my response again – there are people you can hire that don’t cost $100,000+ in salary and benefits. This ordinance of obviously a revenue ploy. Like I said, the city does nothing to prevent the theft but wants to essentially ransom stolen carts back to the stores. Hey, it’s not just shopping carts lying all over the park, it’s stuff like parts of stolen bikes – believe me, if they could get serial numbers off those bike parts, the city would penalize the bike owners. They can screw the stores for money, so they will.

     As for having a car stolen, you should read about what happened with Dave’s car, stolen from the parking lot at this apartment. The cops actually had a chance to recover it but as they told him – it wasn’t worth enough money to validate a chase, so they let it go. The thieves were not arrested – the woman eventually caught with the car was out of Butte Co jail within 48 hours and sent off to Yuba county where she was sentenced for other crimes. The problem is not the stores, it’s the atmosphere of lawlessness we are currently experiencing here because our county DA and our police department don’t give a shit.

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