City enforcement personnel in Pasadena recently tied grocers in a bind by aggressively fining members up to $100 for each cart found off a store’s premises, regardless of efforts to keep carts on store property. After several discussions with staff and council offices, it is obvious that the city has a confrontational attitude towards grocers and intends to continue its zero-tolerance policy towards abandoned carts. Further, the activity is not staff-driven but was actually implemented at Council’s direction. CGA is publishing a letter-to-the-editor in the local paper and continuing to schedule meetings with council members and staff to present the industry position. Even so, there is no easy fix to this crisis and nothing in the pipeline to suggest that the enforcement activity will cease anytime soon. CGA will be scheduling a conference call to coordinate strategy to attack the problem and would like industry participation in an upcoming meeting with City officials. If your company has been impacted by this activity, please call Matthew Dodson at 818-841-8640 to discuss.
