Report: 160 shopping carts stolen from Safeway in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — Shopping carts are apparently scarce at a Safeway store in San Francisco.

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The supermarket has moved all of its shopping carts inside the store after 160 of them were allegedly stolen during the past month, SFGate reported.

The thefts at the grocery store at 2020 Market St., originally reported by Hoodline, caught shoppers by surprise.

“Zero shopping carts. It appears they have all been removed, including the cart racks that were outside the front of the store,” resident Paul Johnson posted in a Google review on Friday. “How the hell are you supposed to purchase things like bottled water, canned sodas, beer, seltzers, or wine in the same visit?? I tried the Potrero Street and Mission Street stores, too. Zero.”

“Unbelievable, there were no shopping carts when I went to the Market/Church Safeway,” Upper Market resident Scott S. wrote in a Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Facebook group. “I asked for one and I was told all of the carts had been stolen.

“They had a shipment of 160 carts last week and all of them have been taken, What good is having security if they can’t stop someone walking off the property with a shopping cart?”

Wendy Gutshall, a spokesperson for Safeway, told SFGate that the change in shopping cart availability was an attempt to combat rising theft at the store. Customers who need to take groceries to their vehicles will be required to ask an employee for assistance, she said.

“Like other retailers, the disappearance of shopping carts is an ongoing challenge,” Gutshall told Hoodline. “We continue to explore solutions to address and send additional shopping carts to the Castro Safeway store.”

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