SCENE OF THE CRIME : Shopping Cart A-Go-Go

After the Boys/Viva supermarket at 103rd and Wilmington burned down in last year’s riots, Food 4 Less bought it and rebuilt on the site. Along with the new store came 400 new carts, at a cost of $95 each. Three weeks later, says store director Wilson Colon, 300 carts were missing.

So the market replaced them and tried a new plan. Customers could borrow the carts, and they received $1 scrip for groceries when they brought them back. Three weeks later, says Colon, 200 carts had been stolen.

Southern California grocers, who spend $12 million a year retrieving carts and another $4 million replacing lost ones, have tried a lot of gimmicks to keep them. One company installed an electronic wire around the parking lot perimeter. When a cart crossed the wire, it tripped a device that locked a brake. Liability worries grounded this plan.

Another system popped down a fifth wheel, making the cart run in circles if you lifted it over a curb. Markets posted a warning on the cart not to lift it, inspiring customers to do just that. Clerks soon tired of resetting the carts.

Grocers don’t want to alienate shoppers who walk to their stores, but, notes Don Beaver, president of the California Grocers’ Assn.: “We have a tremendous problem with the homeless taking shopping carts.” The group guesses that about 500,000 carts are in the hands of the state’s homeless. Grocers are now launching a program to donate old carts to homeless shelters.

Meanwhile, Colon hired guards to stem the thefts--but also bought 200 aging carts for those walk-in customers who need a little help trundling their groceries home.