Tulsa invests $100k in Cart Repo program: 1,917 shopping carts collected so far

The City of Tulsa says the company it hired in December to find and collect stolen shopping carts has collected 1,917 of them so far.

The city paid $100,000 to have Cart Repo collect the abandoned carts.

The company then tries to resell the carts back to the retailer that owns them at a reduced price.

Finding carts

Cart Repo says it's collected those carts from 40 different stores, but the majority of those carts are coming from Walmart.

Cart Repo's team looks for abandoned carts all over Tulsa. They also pick up ones that people have spotted and call in.

The struggle to get retailers to participate

Cart Repo says Reasor's grocery store has agreed to buy back some of the carts that had been stolen. But other retailers aren't interested in doing that. 

"One of the biggest reasons is, well, these carts are stolen from us, so they don't feel like they should have to pay for them," Shantelle Muhammad from Cart Repo said.

How it works

Cart Repo sells carts back to stores for $15 to $20 a cart, depending on how many carts are collected and what type they are, like metal or plastic. This is compared to the new price of a cart, starting around $150. Right now, the carts are being held at a facility in Mohawk Park, and if a store wants to buy back its cart, Cart Repo will deliver it.

The City of Tulsa's role

The Tulsa Streets department says Cart Repo is sending the city a bill each month for carts collected at $15 a piece. If stores bought back the carts, the city would break even, but right now, the city is losing money. 

"We're not getting any," Terry Ball, Tulsa Streets Department director, said. "That's part of what we've got to look at as far as long-term viability. How do we make that? You know, if it's going to be, I don't know that we'll never break even necessarily, but how do we at least keep it a little more balanced? That's probably a discussion down the road."

The city also has to decide what to do with carts that are not bought back. Metal carts can be recycled, but plastic carts need to go somewhere.

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