It’s only been two months since the City of Albuquerque started a pilot program aimed at collecting abandoned or “ghost” shopping carts that were strewn across the city.
In the time, third-party vendors have collected 1,885 carts total, all of which are now located in a lot in Southwest Albuquerque.
Some big name box stores have numerous carts that have been rounded up, including Lowes, Target, Hobby Lobby and Walmart.
Matthew Whelan, the city’s Solid Waste Department Director said these carts were found in all sorts of places around Albuquerque.
“We call them ghost carts because they just kinda appear out of anywhere. You can see them at apartment complexes, you can see them at bus stops or you can see one in the middle of the sidewalk and you’re like, there’s not a Walmart anywhere around here, how did that cart make it here?”
Whelan said the program has also shed light on some of the uses these carts are getting, such as people using them to transport groceries to and from the store and bus stops.
The city did share that none of these carts came from homeless encampments or were taken from those experiencing homelessness.
Another division of the city deals with those carts in particular, this pilot program is only dealing with loose carts.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the city has been reaching out to retailers to let them know they’ve located their carts.
“We’ve been reaching out to some of them, some have been responsive, some haven’t been. But we’re kinda saying, look, we have your carts, we don’t want to see these all over our city.”
Keller also said he’d like to see retailers employ more countermeasures to make it harder for individuals to take carts from the store, such as a quarter-rent system or installing turnstyles.
The pilot program is set to continue operation for the next six months.
