Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Removing shopping carts

Shopping carts are store property, just like your car is your property.

Stores lend shopping carts to their customers for their convenience. The store makes the rules. If the customer violates the rules, this can either be a civil matter (breach of contract) or a crime (theft) depending upon the "customer's" intent. If the customer intends to deprive the store of the cart, that points to theft. It can get pretty technical.

Compare with you lending your car to a friend. You expect them to bring it back to your driveway. If the friend leaves it a block away, that's probably a civil matter - a breach of contract, of sorts. If they leave it six blocks away, wrecked, and don't tell you, that could be theft (a crime).

So, I'd say the answer to your first question is "probably not," but perhaps the answer is yes, if by "illegal" you mean "criminal." If by "illegal" you only mean "contrary to the store's expectation and permission," the answer is sure.

Shopping carts are expensive, and the solution seems to be to advise the store management when and where they can retrieve their valuable equipment, which they should be delighted to do.