The apparent failure to regularly pick up garbage—that is overflowing in trash bins—on the private property near Lincoln Avenue and Willow Street has affected the shops nearby—and their customers.

"I've heard people saying, 'It's disgusting, people should be picking them up on weekends,' " said Deborah Aguilar, manager of Peninsula Beauty Supply. According to Aguilar, coffee cups and foam containers that overflow the garbage cans, as well as newspapers left outside by customers, are blown by the wind onto the sidewalk and in front of other stores.

Anita Rutheiser, property manager of the strip that includes Noah's Bagels, Black Sea Gallery and Mio Vicino, said she received a phone call from the manager of Peet's Coffee & Tea several weeks ago, advising her of the waste situation.

San Jose-based Medallion Landscape Management is responsible for picking up the trash, Rutheiser said. The city of San Jose is not because the trash is on private property.

"Medallion Landscape Management is supposed to come twice a day, every day," she said. "We even pay extra to have the trash picked up on Sunday."

But merchants say the schedule is sporadic, with consistent pickup for weeks at a time and then a hiccup in service.

"I've never seen then come twice a day, no," Aguilar said, adding that she is not at her beauty shop all day. "Towards the end of the day, the trash cans get pretty raunchy looking."

Rob Thompson, general manager of Jamba Juice, said he sees workers from Medallion show up at around 5 a.m. daily, but only to do landscape maintenance. "I don't see them ever empty the trash on the first shift," Thompson said. "But they do a great job with their trimming and watering."

Medallion did not return calls despite several messages left with the company.

"I've been on top of our maintenance people. They've assured me that they're coming to pick up the trash," Rutheiser said. "They swear up and down that they're doing it twice a day, every day."

But Rutheiser said the storekeepers themselves should take some responsibility and empty out the trash when needed, as Thompson said Jamba Juice already does.

"We take care of our property out front because we think it represents us," he said.

Employees at Jamba are required to empty the trash cans after each shift and clean up the tables in front; Thompson said he himself has even scrubbed the sidewalk on occasion.

"At Jamba, we're really big on being clean," he said. "We share the responsibility. If I have to empty the garbage once in a while, it's no big deal."

Aguilar said her main complaint is with the back area, which does not affect customers.

"The dumpster area's disgusting," she said. "It stinks and people don't put stuff where it should be. The cardboard's in the wrong place and there's cups and fruit peels all over the ground."

Medallion is to blame but so are other store employees who don't follow trash-disposal guidelines, Aguilar said. "It's just the employees being pigs."

Despite the dumpster problem, Aguilar said waste management has improved "100 percent" in the past year.

"Last year, on weekends, trash would be spewing all over," she says.

And, she adds, the current complaints are minor compared to the situation last year.