Special business regulations: shopping carts.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not specify how long it takes to return a shopping cart or what happens if a business cannot pay the $100 charge.

Shopping Cart Regulations

This law allows local governments to retrieve and return lost shopping carts to their owners or retailers, charging up to $100 for the service, and increases fines from $50 to $100 if a business does not comply with retrieving its shopping carts.

What This Bill Does

• Allows local governments to retrieve and return shopping carts left outside of business areas to their owners or retailers.
• Requires local governments to provide at least three days' notice before taking action on lost shopping carts.
• Lets local governments charge up to $100 for the cost of retrieving and returning a shopping cart.
• Increases fines from $50 to $100 if a business does not comply with retrieving its shopping carts.

Who It Names or Affects

• Businesses that own or use shopping carts in public areas.
• Local governments responsible for enforcing the rules about lost shopping carts.

Terms To Know

Impound

To take control of something, like a shopping cart, until it is returned to its owner or paid for.

Ordinance

A rule made by local government that tells people what they can and cannot do in their city or county.

Limits and Unknowns

• The law does not specify how long it takes to return a shopping cart.
• It is unclear if the new rules apply equally to all types of businesses.
• There are no details on what happens if a business cannot pay the $100 charge.

Official Summary Text

SB 753, Cortese.
Special business regulations: shopping carts.
Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to impound a shopping cart that has a specified permanently affixed sign if certain conditions are satisfied, including that the city, county, or city and county provides 3-day advance actual notice of the shopping cart’s discovery and location to the owner of the shopping cart or their agent, except as specified.
This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county, pursuant to an ordinance, to retrieve and return a shopping cart to the parking area or premises of the owner or retailer identified on the affixed sign, as specified, and to recover its actual costs for the retrieval and return, not to exceed
$100 per shopping cart. The bill would also require actual notice for purposes of these provisions to include proof that the notice was delivered to the owner or their agent, as specified, and require the city, county, or city and county to maintain a record of that proof of delivery.
Existing law authorizes the city, county, or city and county to fine the owner of a shopping cart in an amount not to exceed $50 for each occurrence in excess of 3 during a specified 6-month period for failure to retrieve shopping carts in accordance with specified law.
The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to fine the owner of a shopping cart in an amount not to exceed $100 instead of $50 for
each occurrence pursuant to the provisions described above.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF