Saar's Marketplace Keeps Carts Off the Streets with New Containment System

SEATTLE -- In an effort to help reduce "shopping cart blight" in the markets it serves, Saar's Inc., owner of 12 Saar's Marketplace stores, launched a new shopping cart containment system at the grand opening of its newest location today.

The independent grocer teamed with Irvine, Calif.-based Gatekeeper Systems, Inc., a provider of cart containment and retail loss prevention solutions, to keep its shopping carts off the streets of Seattle. "When a person walks through our community, I don't want them to associate the Saar's name with shopping cart blight," said Greg Saar, President. "We [deployed] Gatekeeper Systems' technology to help ensure our carts stay on our lot and don't end up on the streets of Seattle."

Loss prevention is also a factor. "Each shopping cart that leaves the premises represents about $100 rolling off of the lot," said Saar. "Cart retrieval costs and damage to carts outside of the parking area really add up over time. When you retain your cart fleet, you retain dollars -- dollars that can translate into lower prices for your customers, a competitive advantage for any retailer."

The Gatekeeper Systems, Inc. "GS System" combines a digital locking signal, an underground perimeter antenna, a multitude of customer awareness collateral, and the company's electromechanical, self-locking shopping cart wheel and anti-tilt bar set-up to render a cart virtually immovable when it crosses a well-marked exit point from the premises.