Shopping Cart Thefts Cost Israeli Retailers Millions in Annual Losses
Israeli supermarket chains suffer heavy financial losses as thousands of shopping carts are stolen annually for private use, scrap metal, and Lag BaOmer bonfires, prompting retailers to adopt new tracking technologies.
The disappearance of supermarket shopping carts from Israeli grocery chains has escalated into a serious industry-wide concern, causing heavy financial losses. The phenomenon involves not only large carts, which cost approximately 600 shekels each, but also smaller carts and baskets, which are frequently taken for private use in apartment buildings or diverted to restaurants, locksmith workshops, and garages.
The scale of the problem reaches hundreds and thousands of missing carts annually for each chain, resulting in hundreds of thousands of shekels in replacement expenses. Rami Levy, owner of the Rami Levy chain, describes a widespread trend that extends well beyond casual private use. According to Levy, some thieves sell the metal to garages and tire repair shops after deliberately removing the embossed store name, though they occasionally overlook the bottom markings.
Levy emphasizes that this amounts to an annual loss of hundreds of thousands of shekels for his chain alone and millions of dollars across the entire market, defining the activity as "theft in every sense." Furthermore, the shortage disrupts customer service when shoppers arrive at a branch only to find no available carts. Despite complaints filed by security officers in 17 municipalities, Levy claims police have largely failed to respond. In response, the chain is developing a specialized technology that will cause carts to emit a loud alarm signal once they are moved 100 to 150 meters away from the store.
Second-Hand Markets and Metal Prices
City Market founder and CEO Yossi Schwartz describes a parallel situation, noting that Israeli consumers remain largely unaware of the actual equipment costs—ranging from 250 to 500 shekels for a standard cart and about 100 shekels for a red trolley basket—often treating them as public property.
Schwartz explains that many customers push carts all the way home, leave them abandoned on public streets, or load them directly into personal vehicles. The quarterly theft rate at his chain reaches roughly 20,000 to 25,000 carts, forcing the company to occasionally purchase used carts from the second-hand market. He adds that the problem spikes dramatically ahead of the Lag BaOmer holiday, when branches must hide carts to protect them from children gathering wood for bonfires, who sometimes burn the metal carts entirely.
Challenges at Tiv Taam
Other major retailers face similar struggles; Tiv Taam reports an annual loss of 700 to 850 carts, amounting to procurement costs between 150,000 and 160,000 euros. Tamir Hadad, the chain's head of security, notes that their premium designer carts are particularly targeted.
Hadad adds that theft volumes correlate closely with international iron prices in China; if commodity prices rise, stolen carts become increasingly lucrative to sell as scrap metal. The retailer has attempted to counter the trend using wheel-locking mechanisms and a pilot RFID tracking system, but Hadad reports that thieves have learned to neutralize the technology using aluminum foil, frequently stealing the locking mechanisms themselves and compounding the financial damage.
