Every cart owner shall develop, implement and comply with the terms and conditions of an abandoned cart prevention plan or "ACPP," as defined in this chapter, to prevent the unauthorized removal by any person of any cart from the owner's premises. The ACPP shall be submitted to the director within sixty (60) calendar days of written notification by the director that such plan is required. A new owner of a business is required to submit an application to the director with either a new plan, or adoption of the plan submitted by the previous owner.
The ACPP shall include the following elements and a detailed description of how they will be implemented:
A. Name of Business/Owner. The name of the owner and the business name, the physical address where the business is conducted, name, address and phone number(s) of the on-site and offsite owner if different.
B. Community Outreach. A description of a community outreach process under which the owner shall cause notice to be provided to customers that the removal of carts from the premises is prohibited and is a violation of state and local law. This notice may include, but is not limited to, flyers distributed at the premises, warnings on shopping bags, signs posted in prominent places near doors on the premises and parking lot exits, or other means demonstrated to effectively inform customers of the law. Any and all posting of signs shall comply with the provisions of the code.
C. Cart Identification. Signs and cart identification information which conform to this chapter and state law.
D. Loss Prevention Measures. A description of the physical containment system(s) that the owner shall implement to prevent cart removal from the premises. These measures may include, but are not limited to, electronic or other disabling devices on the carts so they cannot be removed from the premises, use of security personnel to prevent removal, use of staff to collect carts from the premises on an hourly basis, requiring a security deposit for use of cart, or other demonstrable measures acceptable to the director that are likely to prevent cart removal from the premises.
E. Employee Training. The owner of the retail establishment shall implement and maintain a periodic training program for its new and existing employees designed to educate such employees concerning the requirements of the ACPP and the provision of law prohibiting the unauthorized removal of shopping carts from the premises of the retail establishment.
F. Mandatory Cart Retrieval Plan. The procedure by which the owner or qualified cart retrieval service will search, find and return carts removed from the premises. The cart retrieval operation must demonstrate that the cart retrieval service shall actively locate abandoned carts within a one-mile radius of the business premises at least once per week. The qualified cart retrieval service shall not place any limits on daily loads or days per week to retrieve carts within the City, and that the cart retrieval service or cart owner will respond to complaints from the public or notifications from an enforcement officer in a manner which results in the retrieval of carts within three (3) business days of receiving the notification. Whomever is identified by the owner of a retail establishment as the party responsible for retrieval of the carts shall be made available for cart retrieval six (6) days a week, eight (8) hours a day or during the owner's business hours, whichever is shorter.
(Ord. 2593 §1 (part))