How to report stolen and abandoned supermarket trolleys in Australia

Thank you for this useful list. Our Neighbourhood Watch newspaper published a link to your site. Hopefully more people will be reporting the stranded shopping trolleys they come across.

Mar, Florey ACT Australia, 24 August 2018

Many thanks for putting together and maintaining this page! I found a link to here via our MP (Sonia Hornery) Facebook page. It is very handy to have all the contacts in one place.

Steve, Wallsend NSW Australia, 19 April 2019

Since about May 2020 Aldi has refused to take trolley reports via their 13 phone number and insists they all be logged manually by customers via their clunky contact web form. They initially blamed this on the covid pandemic, but still haven't changed their approach, so it was clearly just an excuse. This puts a huge burden on customers and I suspect it is illegal as a 1800 contact number (or similar) is a mandatory legislated requirement, at least in the ACT where I work. Also, Aldi is the least responsive to acting on these trolley pickup requests, which adds to the problem. I thought it might be worth adding a note regarding Aldi's phone number to this very useful trolley report page to help others too. When calling it you only get a recorded message. How a multi national company with hundreds if Australian stores can refuse to take phone calls is beyond me!

Tony T., ACT Australia, 7 November 2020

Kmart has an appalling attitude to collecting their abandoned trolleys. Bateau Bay store managers don't care. Sometimes there isn't any in the store. The page with trolley collection form has been removed from Kmart website. The council tells us to ring Trolley Tracker, which is useless as they are not responsible for Kmart trolleys.

Anonymous, Bateau Bay NSW Australia, 29 November 2020

ALDI now has an abandoned trolley contact web page. It's quick and requires no personal information to be entered.

Anonymous, 27 January 2021

Thank you for the information. This page has been updated accordingly.

We have reported trolleys abandoned on our streets but nothing gets done. The big supermarkets say it's a safety issue with COVID to collect them. But what about the safety issue for traffic with them left on the road? We are fed up and hope something can be done.

Anonymous, 4 July 2021

Sadly, you are right. Covid became a convenient excuse for a wide variety of inexcusable things: from ramping up mass surveillance to unprecedented levels (which is unlikely to be wound back entirely when the pandemic is over), to slower postal deliveries, to canceled kerbside bulk rubbish collections in some local councils, to the refusal to pick up abandoned supermarket trolleys...

Covid seems to be the main 'excuse' for a number of shops refusing to pick-up their trolleys.
Aldi in Marrickville is no exception. I reported a set of 4 trolleys less than a kilometre away from their store 4 times and they still had not collected them. Finally, I reported it to council and they placed the orange stickers on them, which meant that the owner should get the trolleys off the street. Only when the council was notified, were the trolleys removed.
I suppose if the local council would begin 'fining' the stores, then Aldi and others would become more responsible. Coles is the worst. They have a website and a notification by email once the trolley is collected. 3 times they have notified me that the trolley had been collected, but it wasn't. Coles should either get a better system or sack the driver who claims to have collected the trolley.

Anonymous, 11 July 2021

One of the tenants in my block of units is a repeat offender of trolley stealing. I'm not sure how he does it, as our local Coles now has the wheel-lock device on their trolleys. Nevertheless, the tenant always manages to bring a trolley back to the unit block and park it in the common area. I have reported these trolleys many times, and will continue to do so.

Anonymous, 5 August 2021

Who do I contact for an abandoned IGA trolley?

Mick, 10 September 2021

IGA don't seem to have a centralised trolley reporting and collection service. If you wish to report an abandoned IGA shopping trolley, the best approach might be to contact the nearest IGA shop, or enquire at the IGA Corporate Head Office.

Aldi refuse to pick up their trolleys from neighbouring streets - and ON the road. I've even gone into the store and asked for the manager who said they can't get them picked up! Why they can't take the initiative and actually collect them themselves is beyond me (or below them!), especially when the manager told me a lot of people complain!! Well sack your contractor and sort the problem!! Total disrespect for people.

Anonymous, 23 April 2022

UTC doesn't collect trolleys reported on Trolley Tracker in Bateau Bay NSW 2261. This has been a problem for many years and nobody takes responsibility.

R Marmara, 23 June 2022

Aldi does not care about abandoned trolleys. I have reported trolleys at a particular location for 2 months and the 12 abandoned trolleys are still sitting there, rusting away nicely.

Anonymous, 3 August 2022

This does seem to be a recurring issue in some areas and/or with some shops.
If you have reported those trolleys repeatedly over a long period of time, and they still haven't been collected, perhaps it is worth complaining about this to your local council. It can be a frustrating process. However, if people persist with their reports and complaints, there is a chance that the problem of stolen and dumped trolleys will be resolved, eventually. But if people give up or do nothing, there is no chance at all.

Hi. I have been asking the Coles collection service to collect trolleys on our street (Hurstville NSW 2220) for 14 weeks now and have escalated it multiple times and still they remain. Who else can I call please??

Anonymous, 7 November 2022

You can try contacting your local council. Those local councils the are genuinely interested in maintaining a clean and safe environment for their residents would either request the relevant supermarket to collect the abandoned trolleys, or remove the trolleys themselves in a routine cleanup process.

Kmart are the worst for non-collection of their trolleys since splitting from Coles. Senior citizens are seen returning trolleys abandoned around Bateau Bay NSW. This has been going on for years even though we report via Coles Abandoned Trolley page, nothing is done. They can't even collect them from the rear car park of Bateau Bay square. Bad corporate citizens.

Rose Marmara, 22 December 2022

I reported an abandoned ALDI trolley via Aldi's online reporting portal, including an uploaded photograph.... a week later and the trolley is still there.

Surfergt, 9 January 2022

When it comes to shops failing to collect their abandoned trolleys, there are three options available to us:
• If the trolley is not removed after 1-2 weeks, report the trolley to the shop again.
• If the trolley is not removed after weeks of repeated reporting, escalate the issue with your local council.
• If the abandoned trolleys from a particular shop continue being an ongoing serious issue in your area, resolve to never go to that shop and never buy anything from them. Discuss this with your family, friends and neighbours and see if they want to join the action as well. If a business doesn't care about the community or the environment and is interested only in profits, use their language with them. They shouldn't be getting a single cent from the people who do care.

It seems to me, after reading the comments, that I'm not alone in my frustration towards the abandoned trolley situation and the lack of care the big shopping chains have in collecting them! I phoned my local Kmart at first to report 3 abandoned trolleys (this was five weeks before I discovered the other number). I then phoned the 1800 line and I was told they would be picked up within 72 hours from my time of call. Well, of course they haven't so I'll try again and not be so pleasant as I was the last time.
I did put in a report to my local council but I was told they only pick up if the trolley falls into a creek or is a major hindrance that's part of their area, i.e. on the road or whatever. I was also told by the council to use trolley tracker or phone direct which brings me full circle!
A curse also to the LAZY people who use the trolleys then abandoned them only to become someone else's problem. Sigh!!
I wish you all luck as it appears we will need it!

Anonymous, South Australia, 26 June 2023

After following the instructions to report a KMart trolley via 1800 TROLLEY (1800 876 553) and pushing for an online reporting option, the phone staff advised to contact KMart. I did it in writing, and KMart's response was to use this online reporting method: www.coles.com.au/help/abandoned-trolley and use a cable tie to secure the trolley to a nearby pole safely to ensure it stays in place. When using the online form I added in the notes field that this was a KMart trolley. Therefore I recommend:
a. reporting via 1800TROLLEY number, as well as
b. reporting online via the link above, and
c. escalating on KMart Contact Us page as a complaint, then
d. if uncollected, escalating to the local council for KMart to be fined.

Tony, ACT Australia, 24 July 2023

After reporting hundreds of trolleys in our suburb we can vouch for the ease and speed of using the Coles app (ours is on iPhone) for reporting trolleys. Final option in the app menu ("report an abandoned trolley"). Four taps and less than 10 seconds to report. You can even get Siri to open the app when you are driving around ("Hey Siri: open the Coles app"). And we've almost never had to re-report. 5 stars for Coles and their staff on this one. If only Target and KMart were even close to this efficient...

Tony, ACT Australia, 16 September 2023

It is good that Coles app is easy to use. However, the two most important aspects here are that Coles react to such reports and promptly collect their trolleys, and that they have a web-page for reporting Coles trolleys in addition to the app. An app should always be offered only as an optional solution, for those people who have compatible phones and don't mind giving their personal data to Apple or Google in exchange for the chance to download apps. Web-forms are the best way for reporting abandoned trolleys in terms privacy compared to apps, and in terms of time efficiency compared to phone calls. So it is indeed very disappointing that Kmart and Target removed the web-forms and now offer only phone numbers for reporting their trolleys.

I cannot believe the amount of expensive trolleys just dumped around our town. So ugly and not a good look for a tourist town. Never mind the cost to the supermarkets.

Mandy, Mildura VIC Australia, 13 January 2024

It's about time that all retailers that have trolleys are made to have trolleys that require $1 or $2 deposit. I'm sure that this would drastically reduce abandoned trolleys.

Anonymous, 21 August 2024

Perhaps if people are seen wheeling a trolley out of the vicinity of a business then they can be fined for doing so. Perhaps if law enforcement, whilst cruising the streets, could start attaching fines to basically the theft of a trolley if it leaves the premises. People who say they require the trolley to get items home can be directed towards either purchasing some sort of trolley of their own, or looking into home delivery services. If people are spotted outside the precinct of a business with a trolley, perhaps fining them is the answer. There doesn't seem to be any deterrent for stealing trolleys, and those who do have no regard for that property or where they dump it when they no longer have a use for it. Perhaps investigating where this trolley dumping is more prevalent and looking at doing something about the person actually stealing it. Perhaps Council can do some walking around, instead of mindlessly issuing parking fines, which is pure revenue. Council resources could perhaps be better spent in assisting in keeping our city beautified and free of trolley dumping.

Anonymous, NSW, 21 August 2024