Abandoned Shopping Carts

Effective September 13, 2023

The abandonment of shopping carts is an issue of concern to the City of Bellmead and its citizens because the problem impacts every sector of the City. The abandoned shopping carts constitute a nuisance, creates potential hazards to the health and safety of the public, and interferes with pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The abatement of these abandoned shopping carts places a financial burden on both the City and retail establishments. 

City Council passed Ordinance 2023-08; Shopping Carts Nuisance on September 12, 2023. 

The purpose of the Shopping Cart Ordinance is in response to requests from residents and City officials to help create a clean, safe community and to support our businesses that provide shopping carts to their customers. The Shopping Cart Ordinance is developed with two main goals: to support a clean and safe community, and to avoid impacting compliant businesses with regulations.

Community Development seeks to help address abandoned shopping carts and to promote community cleanliness and safety through this ordinance by: 

  • Collaborating with stakeholders which includes residents, businesses and City officials.
  • Encouraging businesses to have identifiable markings on their shopping carts, in case they are removed from the business premises and abandoned.
  • Allowing 24 hours for abandoned shopping carts to be removed from public spaces by business owners or their agents, once identified.
  • Communicating with business owners to help them locate and retrieve their shopping carts easily.
  • Allowing businesses the option to recover carts for a fee per cart from a convenient City Drop-Off Station within a period of 30 calendar days.

A great way to assist the City of Bellmead to keep our community free of abandoned shopping carts, we are providing contact information for all stores that have shopping carts in order for our citizens to call and let a specific store know about any abandoned shopping carts that you may find.