A New Perspective: Breaks on cart problem

It was one of those "holy cow" moments when I heard that Kash and Karry installed a system to address stolen shopping carts that end up abandoned around town.

An electronic strip around the perimeter to the store site causes the wheels to lock when people try to roll the carts offsite. The cartoon below takes the concept to a governmental level.

The problem of shopping cart litter has been growing for the past 15 years or so and it isn't exclusive to this area. Much has been written across the country on ways to solve the problem.

At one point, people in California rode herd on stores that chose to prosecute people who stole the carts, contending the stores were punishing the poor and homeless. In response, the stores quit prosecuting and allowed people to take the carts. The problem became so unbearable, the residents eventually cried uncle and worked to solve the problem. Locking wheels was one of several solutions.

Kash and Karry is in the process of converting to Sweetbay and the store's manager installed the system based on his experience with it in Maryland. The system cost $20,000, but they'll make that up in a little more than a month by not having to replace or search for the carts.

If you live within shopping distance of a store with this system, thank them by shopping there. If you live within shopping distance of a store that does not have this system, go and talk to the manager about installing it. If we want good neighbors, we should reward them and encourage all stores to be part of the solution. We all suffer with higher grocery bills and a blighted community when stores continue to ignore the problem and refuse to address the problem they are creating.

Real Estate

Depending on who you speak to, the real estate market appears to have stabilized for modestly-priced homes.

There are good values available. The people who were hoping to make a killing in the market are only making a modest profit if they purchased recently. Those who have owned for a couple of years or more still are making out like bandits.

Home buyers are taking advantage of the better pricing and those who don't want to own as much real estate are putting their properties on the market, creating a large supply of housing opportunity. Those who want out of the real estate market can get out without getting hurt and those who want to make abnormally large profits will have to sit on their property a little while longer. That's how it should really work.

We've noticed the real estate agents who have been advertising in the Collier Citizen have stated the market is steady, and the mouths are being fed. The panic that existed was short lived, and those who promote properly are back in the saddle riding a normal real estate process. The get-rich-quick days are gone, but the business is still solid according to our advertisers.

Retail stores that are promoting in our pages are talking about a better-than-normal summer season. It's good to see people can and do operate a solid year-round business, rather than survive the sharp spikes of boom and bust times in the same year.

Properly promoting your business to people who will buy your product is the key.