Trolley wars: Countdown rolls out wheel clamps amid abandoned shopping cart backlash

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Countdown has begun quietly rolling out trolley wheel locking systems as calls from the community to address abandoned carts grow louder.

For almost a year, Ethan Smith's front lawn has been home to dozens of ditched trolleys collected off the streets and even fished from the creek near his house.

The West Harbour resident rarely has less than 20 stacked up at one time.

Late last year, Smith showed Focus where many of the abandoned carts ended up in a bid to grow greater awareness of the environmental impact.

It spiked interest, but the issue appears worse than ever before.

"We had a lot of interest and a lot of people got in contact with me just to say they support it. But there's still trolleys," Smith said.

"I don't want to have them here by all means, everyone walks past thinking, what's the crazy trolley fella up to."

A petition, meanwhile, set up by Blockhouse Bay Resident Jacqui Knight calling on supermarkets to do more about the issue has gathered almost 1500 signatures.

She accused supermarket chains of "paying lip service to sustainability".

"They say that they are sustainable, they’re into sustainability and they’ve joined all the correct organisations to show their sustainability, but it's not sustainable.

"All those materials that go into making a trolley and then they get trashed."

Focus contacted a number of supermarkets last year and the only solution offered was to have trolleys, each worth between $130-$190, picked up by their collection service.

However, a potentially more effective approach is already in motion with Countdown kitting out its fleet with locking systems that prevent trolleys from being pushed outside the store's perimeter.

A Countdown spokesperson confirmed that 12 of its 185 stores across the country have the system in place.

They wouldn't disclose which stores had the locks but Focus identified at least one in Dunedin Central.

The concept isn't new to our shores either - over a decade ago the Mt Eden Countdown, branded as Foodtown at the time, fitted its fleet with wheel clamps after losing at least 250 trolleys in six months.

The system was also supposed to be introduced in all the supermarket chain's stores at the time but disappeared for reasons unknown.

Smith said he hopes it's followed through this time, adding additional solutions could be looked at too.

"My initial reaction is that it's fantastic news, like they’re finally doing something about it," Smith said. "But I do ask myself why hasn't this happened if the technology has been there a long time ago?

"I think that if the supermarkets did some kind of promotion just showing some of the impacts of trolleys that are taken and left in the environment, then that might raise people's awareness of it and then perhaps it might stop happening as often.

"But it's like, what are you actually going to do to stop it from happening so that I don't have to keep picking these things up and other people don't have to as well."

Watch full Focus story above

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