Robbery and assault were not the only crimes plaguing Penn's campus last semester. Up to 30 shopping carts were stolen from the Fresh Grocer each month, store employees say.
But a new high-tech system is stopping would-be shopping cart thieves in their tracks.
Over the holidays, the Fresh Grocer installed electronic brakes -- developed by California-based Carttronics Inc. -- designed to keep the carts from leaving the store's area.
Store officials equipped each of the store's 180 carts with a special locking device -- known as the Cart Anti-theft Protection System -- on one front wheel.
If a customer tries to roll a cart past the sidewalk outside the store, located at the intersection of 40th and Walnut streets, a special underground antenna causes the wheel to lock up and the cart becomes immobile.
Before the mechanism was installed, cart theft was a serious nuisance for the supermarket. A store manager said the store lost up to $3,000 per month due to stolen carts.
Shopping cart security is a growing trend among supermarkets nationwide. According to a 2001 USA Today article, a cart is stolen from a store every 90 seconds in the United States.
As a result of persistent theft, the Fresh Grocer had to send out employees to search for and retrieve the missing carts. Fresh Grocer employee Chris Waters said that he has found some as far away as the intersection of 39th and Spruce streets.
Dormitory housekeepers have even found some Fresh Grocer carts in hallways during the cleaning after spring move-out, according to Facilities and Real Estate Services spokesman Tony Sorrentino.
Waters, who helps keep tabs on Fresh Grocer carts, estimated that 75 percent of the missing carts were taken by Penn students.
The new system makes Waters' job a lot easier, he said.
"I can get out [to the curb], get the cart, bring it back and no one gets in trouble," he said.
Most employees agree that the system is working.
Still, students admit it is tempting to take the carts.
College sophomore Alexandra Simon once tried to wheel her cart back to her house on Spruce Street last semester, but an employee stopped her. She added, however, that the worker then offered to help carry her groceries.
Nevertheless, she wishes that the Fresh Grocer had a way for "students without cars to get their groceries home without having to steal a cart."
College junior Ben Winter, who lives at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house at the corner of 41st and Walnut streets, had a similar complaint.
"Someone used to escort us, but now they won't even do that," he said. "It's hard for us to get all the supplies we need."
The supermarket does have a grocery delivery system that drops groceries at customers' homes, but the service is only available to those who spend at least $40.
Fresh Grocer employee Lars Winberg said that he sometimes lends his cell phone to customers who try to take carts past the boundary so that they can call for help carrying their groceries.
Not all of Winberg's customers are so easy to placate, however.
"I've even gotten into physical altercations with people" over the carts, he said.
