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Published on: 12/11/2000
Last Visited: 7/15/2009
Those who try find themselves going in circles, and so far, Prather says, not a single cart has been stolen since the testing began Sept. 18.
The UnCart's™ inventor, James Prather, says the device will save money for the supermarket chains and customers, and help clean up the blight resulting when shopping carts are left in neighborhoods.
"We've had a real impact in this little community here," Prather said of the neighborhood surrounding the Albertson's at 1022 N. Avalon Blvd. "Before we started the test (the carts), it looked like a shopping cart junkyard."
Shopping cart theft has been a problem for the supermarket industry since carts went into full use after World War II.
Today, industry officials say, a shopping cart is stolen from a U.S. store every 90 seconds, adding up to more than 350,000 carts a year.
Supermarket chains are forced to replace the carts - at an average cost of $125 each - and pay thousands of dollars to companies to retrieve them from neighborhoods.
These costs get passed on to consumers in increased food prices.
For every $15,000 spent on shopping cart retrieval, stores must sell $75,000 worth of groceries to recoup their costs, Prather said.
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