Why do you need Shopping Trolley Retention systems? Preventing abandoned trolleys has been a growing issue since 1991 when environmental legislation was passed putting the responsibility of ‘off site’ trolleys onto the retail sector.
Further Governmental Changes clamp down on Abandoned Trolleys
Further governmental changes have occurred, with the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environmental Bill which comes into full effect by Spring 2006, extending and deepening corporate responsibility for these environmental issues. This is a key factor in the way retailers will need to consider this problem. Until now retailers have primarily considered the payback that a system might offer against the annual losses currently being experienced by a store. For example if a £18,000 sysytem stopped 277 trolleys at £65 from going missing in less than a year then the system could be justified on its payback. However, now it seems that the authorities are going to hold companies more responsible for trolleys stolen from the store if they are found in environmentally sensitive areas. This means that if a store loses ten trolleys but five of them end up in a stream which helps to cause flooding then the possible fines/action taken by the authorities will be just as costly as losing 500 trolleys.
Retailers now need to develop a strategy that they can claim is reasonable in combating abandoned trolleys so that they have a defence against prosecution. The new legislation clearly anticipated that retailers could do more to prevent trolleys from escaping and now holds them responsible.
Therefore as long as the retailer shows that it has now taken reasonable efforts (i.e. employed a scheme with some credibility) then they should be able to avoid prosecution.
In conclusion trolleys that are taken off site now pose three problems:
- Costs in recovery or replacement including staff and management time.
- Fines and negative headlines from prosecutions which are likely to grow in severity.
- Fees for storage of recovered trolleys by local councils/authorities.
So the problem is not simply the number of trolleys that are stolen but the damage that may be caused by a few trolleys being abandoned in a specific place.