By WAYNE THOMPSON
Waitakere supermarkets face fines of up to $500 next year if they don't take steps to stop their shopping trolleys being stolen and dumped in city streams.
The city council decided this week to draft a bylaw making supermarkets responsible for the problem, which it says costs ratepayers up
to $50,000 a year.
The bylaw will let council officers salvage the trolleys and recover the costs from supermarkets and make it an offence for supermarkets not to have proper control over their trolleys.
Dumped trolleys are such a problem in Waitakere City that Henderson's landmark sculpture of a pioneer and two bullocks is made from salvaged trolleys.
The bylaw's promoter, Henderson Community Board member Barry Shaw, said yesterday that the move showed a tough resolve to make stores take better theft-prevention measures.
"It's a pathfinder for the country and is aimed to protect the consumer as well, because the supermarkets load the costs of replacing stolen trolleys on to customers."
Stolen trolleys cost stores $300 to $400 each to replace.
Some stores lose 100 a year, and employ staff or contractors to scout neighbourhoods, creeks and railway lines for them.
The council's EcoWater Solutions manager, Tony Miguel, said trolleys dumped in streams blocked fish going to breeding grounds. He said none of the supermarkets in Waitakere had anti-theft systems.
At Glen Innes, in Auckland City, Pak 'N Save had a $30,000 electronic wheel-locking system, activated when the trolley reached a trigger point at the carpark boundary.
Mr Miguel said coin-operated trolleys were common overseas and worked by releasing the trolley from a storage bay when a coin was inserted in a slot.
Ted Van Arkel, New Zealand chief of the Progressive Enterprises supermarket group, said a system where a customer paid $1 for a trolley and got a refund on returning it was being set up in Mangere.
He said the Waitakere proposal was "harsh".
"We need a bit more time to experiment in our stores."
Tony Carter, managing director of Foodstuffs - which includes Pak 'N Save - said the council should be focused on punishing the people who stole trolleys.
It was bizarre that the council was drawing up a bylaw without first discussing it with supermarket management.
