POCOMOKE CITY. — Abandoned shopping carts have become a growing nuisance in several Pocomoke neighborhoods, prompting city officials to look into action. Shopping carts can be found scattered across areas like Sixth Street, raising concerns among residents and local authorities alike.
The complaints have caught the attention of Pocomoke City officials, including Mayor Todd Nock, who acknowledges the severity of the issue. “We’ve seen a large resurgence of shopping carts being placed all around the municipality—it’s not something we saw in the past, but it’s definitely something that’s alarming on multiple facets,” Nock said.
In response, Nock is looking to draft an ordinance to regulate the problem. The proposed ordinance would be modeled after one recently passed in Salisbury, which makes it illegal to remove carts from store property.
Moreover, with store permission, carts could be rented for 72 hours, but retailers would face fines for unreturned carts. Mayor Nock suggested that Pocomoke might impose higher fines than Salisbury’s $25 fee.
City Manager John Barkley emphasized the need to act swiftly.
“We need to get a handle on this thing now, and the best way to do it is to legislate it so we get the attention of commercial business owners that are the source of this issue,” Barkley said. "It's not good for tourism, it's not good for commercial development—it makes us look sloppy as a city, and we're going to get a handle on it by compelling business owners to take care of their own shopping carts."
City officials say the discussions on the ordinance have just begun, but the issue will be addressed in future council workshops.
Both Mayor Nock and Barkley also acknowledged that the growing problem has highlighted a larger concern—the lack of transportation in the city—which they hope to tackle moving forward.
“Shopping carts are the issue right now, but shopping carts are not the problem. Based on these carts being left around town, it lets us know their is a lack of transportation.” said Mayor Nock.
And some residents, like Yhatasica Tingle hope to see the change soon,
“It is a lot of shopping carts. I'm actually, quite frankly, tired of seeing them,” said Tingle. “I just feel like there’s a way they can keep them at the stores without making us pay for them. You know how Aldi makes you put the quarter and stuff in—I don’t think we should go that far, but we should start cracking down on them because there’s a lot of them."
