Rotorua supermarkets react to Kmart charging a trolley bond

Shopping trolleys dumped on Lytton St, Rotorua, in 2020. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua supermarkets have ruled out adopting Kmart’s anti-theft, coin-release trolley system.

One says a bylaw targeting abandoned trolleys has almost halved the number needing retrieval.

Rotorua Kmart began charging customers a 50c trolley bond earlier this month in a bid to stop theft.

Stolen and abandoned trolleys have blighted Rotorua in recent years.

Kmart ran out of trolleys last Christmas Eve, according to an employee.

Rotorua Lakes Council introduced a waste bylaw in August aimed at curbing the issue.

The council collects abandoned trollies and retailers are given 24 hours to recover them or face storage and delivery fees.

A spokesperson said Rotorua Lakes Council would continue to collect abandoned Kmart trolleys.

“It’s great to see them taking this initiative to help curb the problem.”

Shopping trolleys at Rotorua's Kmart will now cost you a deposit of 50c to use. Photo / Kelly Makiha

The council would be happy if other retailers introduced their own deterrence systems.

The council received legal advice on requiring retailers to have deterrence systems, but was advised providing a “high level of proof” of responsibility was not “practical or achievable”.

The council collected 186 trolleys in October. All were collected by the store operators within 24 hours.

Sixteen were Kmart trolleys.

“It’s not a large proportion of the total, but any systems like this that stores implement will help to reduce the problem.”

Pak’nSave Rotorua owner-operator Amanda Elliot said it was “extremely frustrating” when trolleys were taken and the store took trolley management seriously.

She said the store had a designated team and truck to retrieve trolleys.

Rotorua Pak'nSave owner Amanda Elliot.

Trolleys were also locked overnight, with security monitoring them.

Elliot backed the bylaw and said trolley retrievals had “almost halved” since it was introduced.

A Foodstuffs spokesperson said it would not be following Kmart as a previous coin-release trial showed it was not suitable for customers.

“New Zealand shoppers are far more likely to use Eftpos or debit cards rather than carry coins, and we want our trolleys to remain easily accessible to everyone.”

Rotorua Woolworths, FreshChoice Te Ngae and the new FreshChoice Central Rotorua are also unlikely to introduce coin-release systems.

Woolworths New Zealand head of facilities management Karl Svenoy said: “Many customers don’t carry coins now, so a coin system may not be the most practical or convenient for our customers.”

He highlighted electronic wheel locking as another option and said the company was looking at options.

Discarded supermarket trolleys in Rotorua. Photos / Laura Smith

Stolen or abandoned trolleys could be “a nuisance”.

Woolworths was committed to keeping communities “tidy and trolley-free”.

“We already work closely with councils and our collection contractors, and this process provides a clear structure for managing stolen trolleys.”

Local Democracy Reporting reported in 2023 that ratepayers were paying about $5000 for council removal of about 260 trolleys a month from streets.

Enforcing the bylaw was estimated to cost $51,500, although some of that could be recovered through late-retrieval fees.

Kmart Group was approached for comment.

Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.