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It's hard to disagree with the city's proposal to crack down on shopping carts that are littering many city neighborhoods.
In many cases, the carts are making it easier for people to steal metal – like the innards from a freezer at the St. Susan Center, markers from Lakeview Cemetery or other items throughout the city – and transport them to scrapyards. So not only are the carts becoming a growing eyesore in some neighborhoods, they are also actively being used in thefts and criminal mischief. A memorandum associated with the ordinance noted that on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, code enforcement officials saw someone taking a shopping cart to a local scrap yard full of items presumed to be scrap products. Reports from local business owners and neighbors on and near Monroe Street in Jamestown have reported individuals stripping small appliances, on City owned property, also a
wetland or park, and moving their scrapable items using a stolen shopping cart while leaving behind litter and debris. The Department of Development, the Jamestown Police Department, and The Jamestown Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department have incurred a steep increase in costs associated with service calls and cleanup of these areas.
Those who are using shopping carts outside of a store property can be punished by a $250 fine or 15 days in the city jail. We agree with the city that those who violate the ordinance should be fined.
Where we differ from the city is penalizing stores that didn’t want the carts stolen in the first place as well as shoppers who may end up being affected by stores’ responses to the ordinance. The ordinance affects relatively few stores in the city, but those stores will now have to install anti-theft systems on their carts to keep them from being stolen as well as place signs on each cart that provides ownership information. As shopping carts are rounded up throughout the city, stores will pay $25 when they retrieve them. Carts not collected after five days will be dismantled and disposed of by the city.
We can see some smaller stores deciding to keep fewer than 15 carts in the store to avoid the cost associated with installing anti-theft mechanisms. We have noticed some stores where there are noticeably fewer shopping carts already as they have been stolen and not replaced. And, enterprising shopping cart thieves will surely find their way to Lakewood, Ellicott or Falconer – where stores aren't being held responsible for their stolen shopping carts that are later found in the city.
We aren't saying the city's ordinance will be the end of grocery stores in Jamestown. But we wouldn't be surprised if a well-meaning ordinance ends up driving shoppers to Lakewood, either, or having an adverse impact on shoppers in the city limits. We would prefer to see the ordinance amended to require local businesses to develop their own cart-retrieval plans with penalties and costs coming to stores whose carts are ending up being collected by the city. There may be more than one way to keep carts on a store property that aren't included in the city's ordinance.
We can disagree on the how, but we agree on the what. Shopping carts have become an increasing problem in neighborhoods throughout the city. The city is doing the right thing in trying to keep them on store property rather than in neighborhoods where they are contributing to blight and nuisance crimes.