Special business regulations: shopping carts.

Senator Cortese’s measure frames local cart retrieval as a matter of statewide concern and would authorize cities, counties, or city and county governments to retrieve and return a shopping cart that is located outside the premises or parking area of a retail establishment to the owner or retailer identified on the affixed sign, while allowing recovery of the cart’s actual retrieval and return costs up to one hundred dollars per cart. The bill also introduces a revised penalty structure for cart owners who repeatedly fail to retrieve carts, increasing the maximum fine per occurrence to one hundred dollars for each instance beyond the initial three in a six‑month period. The authors’ findings emphasize a uniform statewide regulatory approach to cart retrieval.

Key mechanisms establish a new ordinance framework governing when and how retrieval may occur. An ordinance adopted by a city, county, or city and county must set criteria for determining when a cart is inaccessible to the owner or their agent, describe how retrieval costs will be calculated, and provide for at least forty‑eight hours of actual notice to the owner or designated agent before retrieval, with proof of delivery recorded. The ordinance may require the owner to follow specified notice procedures, and it may specify that the city, county, or city and county recover its actual costs for retrieval and return from the cart owner, up to the one‑hundred‑dollar cap, subject to the accessibility criteria. The bill clarifies that the parking area for a multistore complex or shopping center includes the entire area used by the complex.

In addition to the ordinance pathway, the measure contemplates scenarios arising from public complaints or service requests. When such a complaint prompts retrieval, authorities may either retrieve and return without giving actual notice (in which case costs cannot be recovered) or provide at least forty‑eight hours’ notice and recover costs consistent with the ordinance framework. The bill preserves an emergency‑response pathway allowing immediate retrieval if the cart’s location would impede emergency services or pose a health or safety threat, and it expressly allows no‑reimbursement retrieval under certain conditions. The legislation requires proof of notice and a maintained record of delivery, and it expands the permissible storage considerations to require carts to be held at locations that are reasonably convenient for the owner and open for business for at least six hours each day.

Finally, the measure outlines broader implications for cart disposition and enforcement. If unreclaimed within the specified periods, carts may be sold or disposed of after thirty days, and the concept of an “occurrence” in relation to noncompliance is tied to a six‑month window, reflecting the enforcement cycle for fines. An alternative impoundment pathway permits immediate impoundment without the standard three‑day notice if the owner is provided actual notice within twenty‑four hours, the cart is kept at an approved location, and the owner reclaim within three business days to avoid charges; this pathway also limits charges during the early reclaim period. Collectively, the provisions create a statewide regulatory scaffold that coordinates notice, cost recovery, storage, and disposition across local jurisdictions, while clarifying how cart owners, retailers, and local governments interact within the existing regulatory landscape.