If you live in Phoenix, Arizona, you’ve probably had to deal with shopping carts abandoned all over the city. However, the City Council has had enough of them and has said “enough is enough,” to the point that they have signed a law that will come into effect on Thursday, January 15, 2026. From that day on, leaving a shopping cart abandoned on the street will be very costly for the establishment to which it belongs.
If you have recently noticed that the wheels of shopping carts lock up as soon as you leave the supermarket, this is not a technical fault, but a high-tech mechanism that large supermarkets have implemented to avoid the $1,000 fines that await them if they do not keep their shopping carts secure.
Shopping carts everywhere
Although in the United States we are used to being able to use shopping carts and put our minds at ease, the situation had become unsustainable in Phoenix, so much so that local authorities had to take action. Not only were they unsightly, but they also accumulated at bus stops, were left abandoned in parks, and blocked sidewalks in residential communities.
In 2024 alone, the city was forced to recover more than 7,800 abandoned shopping carts from more than 640 different stores throughout the city. In the end, everyone lost out: taxpaying residents saw a large part of the city council’s budget devoted to collecting scrap metal and rubbish that should not have been there, and stores lost shopping carts, which are part of their business infrastructure and cost hundreds of dollars each.
Stores had been asked nicely to try to solve the problem voluntarily, but the city has decided to take a hard line and impose expensive financial incentives that will ensure businesses keep shopping carts from leaving their premises.
No shopping cart gone astray
Starting this week, stores in Phoenix have two options to comply with the law and avoid fines: install locking systems on their shopping cart wheels (which work with perimeter sensors); or the less technological but more logistically demanding option of hiring a professional cart recovery company.
What we do know is that the initial fine for non-compliance is now $500. It will be very expensive for a supermarket customer to take a shopping cart with them. If carts from a particular establishment continue to be found scattered around the city, the fine will double to $1,000 for each abandoned cart. But is there a way to get the cart to stay in the parking lot without resorting to such drastic measures? Europeans are very clear about this.
The key to keeping shopping carts within perimeter — a single coin
The human mind can create wonderful things, but it is also quite simple. Decades before locking systems and GPS were created, supermarkets in Europe had already solved this problem with a low-tech solution.Yes, European supermarkets simply use a coin deposit system.
Americans who have visited an Aldi supermarket in the United States will know that Aldi shopping carts can only be borrowed by inserting a coin—or plastic token. If you want your money back, you must return the cart to its place and chain it back up.
It’s a brilliant psychological system that transfers responsibility to the user without legal threats. Even the laziest person who is used to abandoning the cart in the middle of the parking lot will try not to lose their coin. If they prefer to lose that money, another shopper will be happy to take the shopping cart, use it, and then return it to its place to earn that “free” tip. Conclusion? No more shopping carts roaming free in the parking lot.
This may be the future of supermarkets and stores in Phoenix. For now, residents will have to get used to carrying some change if they want to grab a shopping cart every time they go grocery shopping for the week. It will be much cheaper than paying a fine.