Midland Supa IGA owner Matthew Pham said the trolley fine bylaw needed some more work so that it doesn’t undermine small businesses with overly harsh fines.

Swan family business calls for trolley fine review

City of Swan’s trolley fines has drawn mixed reactions with some retailers claiming it to be too harsh on small businesses.
January 9, 2025
Guanhao Cheng

SINCE the City of Swan introduced its new trolley fine in November, the community has provided a mixed response to its effect on the community and business owners.

Pham Group operations and marketing manager Matthew Huy Pham said he understood the need for reducing abandoned trolleys, but believed the method needed some work.

“As a business, we understand and agree that abandoned trolleys are not a good look for the shire and the Midland community, so I totally understand that some action had to be put in place,” he said.

“From my understanding, if the city collected any abandoned trolleys, they’d notify shops and provide a grace period, and if they weren’t collected during that, then the fine would be applied.

“We just did a trolley run in the afternoon and visited the Midland operation centre after we saw a Facebook photo put up with some of our trolleys in it.

“We rocked up and we saw about 100 trolleys and 20 of them were ours, so we spoke to the lady at the centre, and she confirmed that their position was if the city collected the trolley, it is automatically a $40 fine per trolley.

“That took us back a bit, and I’m up for a $800 fine as is and we easily lose 10-20 trolleys a week, which, we can’t see this being a sustainable position for our business and the other nearby IGA stores, who are small business owners that can’t afford this type of fine.

“The lady agreed that the intention isn’t obviously to slap us small family businesses and for us to not be sustainable, but we weren’t really consulted during this whole process.”

Mr Pham said there were multiple friction points with the current iteration of the bylaw and wished more could be done so businesses and the city could work together and find a solution that worked for all.

As reported in Swan tackles shopping trolleys, the city would impound abandoned shopping trolleys and charge a collection fee to retail owners, covering the collection cost and encouraging retailers to improve their trolley management.

City of Swan Mayor Tanya Richardson said the city was aware of the multitude of opinions about the amended bylaw.

“The City of Swan has received varied feedback about our abandoned shopping trolley local law with most expressing gratitude for tackling this ongoing issue,” she said.

“Since collection started in November 2024, we have proactively picked up more than 250 abandoned trolleys and we’ve seen an increase in retailers collecting trolleys, reducing instances of abandonment.

“We hope introducing trolley collection fees encourages retailers to explore other solutions to manage abandoned trolleys, such as employing additional trolley collectors, implementing coin return trolleys or installing wheel-locking mechanisms.

“Several retailers have acknowledged the new law and proactively worked with us to address the issue.

“This has included discussions on hotspot locations, payment inquiries and collection requirements – all of which the city has either resolved or is working on.

“We have recently responded to one retailer who has raised concerns about the cost to their businesses and how to prevent consumers from taking trolleys.

“Since collection only started a few months ago and implementation of the local law is still in its early stages, we will continue to monitor its success in the coming months.”

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