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They may carry out bags of groceries but shopping carts have proven to be very useful for other things too: a portable suitcase for transients, a go-cart for children, or a barbecue pit for beachgoers.

The humble carts are so popular that stores like Walgreens on Palmetto Avenue in Pacifica have taken to installing a security device that locks the cart's front wheel before it even rolls out the storefront door.

"Like many retailers, we utilize anti-theft devices at some stores that prevent our shopping carts from being removed from our property," said Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso. "We installed the devices in our Pacifica location after experiencing a high number of cart thefts."

It's the drug store's equivalent of a car alarm or an invisible fence that triggers a dog's shock collar.

But some customers aren't too happy with the trend.

"It's sort of ridiculous," said John Stein, 68, of Pacifica. "I understand why they have to do it but it's really inconvenient especially for seniors and people with little kids or in a rush trying to get out of the store with their bags."

Every cart in the Walgreens store on Palmetto Avenue has a sign on it: "Attention Shoppers! Our shopping carts will lock if taken beyond the parking lot perimeter. While distinctive yellow lines mark normal exits, the entire lot is protected."


Store employees at Walgreens say that all customers need to do is ask, and they'll unlock the mechanism on the cart for the customers who need to get to their cars in the parking lot with their bags. An employee will then follow the customer out so they can retrieve the cart and return it inside.

"To minimize any inconvenience to our customers, our team members can also assist in carrying any items to cars parked nearby on the street," said Caruso.

Julia Webb, 32, who was putting her 4-year-old daughter into a shopping cart seat Tuesday at Walgreens in Pacifica, was surprised to hear the cart's wheels would lock if someone tried to take it out of the store.

"Wow. I had no idea," she said. "I guess it's a pretty good idea."

Another customer, a Pacifica resident of 65 years, also thinks it's a great idea because she's "so tired of seeing abandoned shopping carts around town all these years," she said.

Hundreds of thousands of shopping carts are stolen, lost or destroyed annually in North America, costing retailers in California alone tens of millions in retail cart losses annually said Dave Heylen, spokesperson for the California Grocers Association.

Walgreens is not the only Pacifica retailer trying to thwart the theft of shopping carts, which according to Heylen cost retailers $75 to $150 to replace.

Carts at Safeway on Manor Drive and in the Linda Mar Shopping Center have been equipped for years with wheels that lock up once a cart gets pushed past a wire antenna buried in the parking lot.

"Ever since I've worked here we've had this technology, and that's 30 years now," said Safeway assistant manager Robbie Sandell of in Linda Mar.

This is because carts are often taken by people without cars who wheel their groceries home and then abandon the carts, said Sandell. Carts are also stolen to be sold to recyclers, he added.

Most customers don't notice the carts are equipped with wheels that lock up, said Sandell. Once the mechanism is triggered, though, the wheel remains locked until a supermarket employee waves a wand to free the wheel up.

"It doesn't bother me a bit," said Janice Hill walking out of Walgreens on Tuesday with two shopping bags slung over her arm. "People steal these carts all the time. It's too bad we need to lock them up because of that, but I'm fed up of seeing them dumped on the side of the road or worse in our creeks and rivers."

Shopping carts at Fresh & Easy and Rite Aid in the Fairmont Shopping Center are not equipped with wheels that lock up, and store employees at both stores say they have seen their shopping cart supply dwindle.

Still, Walgreens is the only retailer in Pacifica that utilizes anti-theft devices before the cart even makes it out of the store door.

Heylen says the most important thing that retailers can do to prevent cart losses is to make sure that they have someone to seek out carts that get taken off of the premises and left in neighborhoods.

"If carts are not returned to stores promptly," he said, "the chance of them being permanently stolen by junk recyclers or homeless individuals is pretty high."

Christa Bigue can be reached at