Littered Carts in Kapolei

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Week 1 - Neighborhood Assignment

City collected 4,823 carts this year according to KHON2 News. Retailers ask shoppers to not remove carts off the property.

Tina Yamaki, President of Retail Merchants of Hawaii, said a cart is worth $700 to $800. It is a crime to take it off property.

So many carts have been stolen that the store has downed to just five, an employee said. The employees would have to carry purchases to the customer's cars.

I brought this as more of an awareness toward people who lived in the city. I took pictures of carts that littered the Kapolei Marketplace and interviewed three people on their opinion on this.

I commute to-and-fro Kapolei to UH Mānoa by bus on weekdays. I will often see littered carts in the Kapolei Marketplace. I was about to board bus 41 at stop 667 Wednesday evening to which I met Tehani, a local 15-year-old resident in the city of Kapolei. Tehani was sitting on a cart waiting for her bus and I interviewed her.

“Why do you think the carts are here? How do you see it detrimental?” I asked.

“I think they like somewhere to sit [after they] get their groceries from Walmart,” Tehani said. “This one is from Safeway,” she said as she pointed at the black cart that she sat on. Then she pointed at the red cart beside her, “Longs definitely.”

These carts are both a utility for people who have moved their necessities and for ergonomics such as sitting, hence they’re laid down. People would leave trash inside these carts as well in some occasions.

“It’s terrible. It’s a big problem in our city,” the second person I had interviewed, Judie, 34, a mother of three children living in Kapolei. “Some people don’t have a car to get their groceries home. They can carry everything. I guess the company to pick them up.”

“They need to be more responsible, it’s terrible,” Mary, 58, who has lived in Kapolei for 27 years and over 40 years on the island. “It’s a big problem in our villages. Home owners bringing them in and not bringing them back. I think they use it to carry their groceries to where they want them and leave the cart. It really makes the world ugly.”

Will there be a solution? According to KHON2 News, some stores installed technology that prevents you from removing them off the property: wheels that lock when you cross a perimeter, or poles that block you from leaving the store.