Grocery store cart Rant....

[mickeyd]

10 Things Your Grocery Store Doesn't Want You to Know - 1 - MSN Health & Fitness - Diet & Fitness

According to studies done on shopping carts, more than 60 percent of them are harboring coliform bacteria (the sort more often associated with public toilet seats). “These bacteria may be coming from raw foods or from children who sit in the carts,” says Chuck Gerba, Ph.D., a microbiologist at University of Arizona. “Just think about the fact that a few minutes ago, some kid’s bottom was where you are now putting your broccoli.” According to studies done by Gerba and his colleagues at University of Arizona, shopping carts had more bacteria than other surfaces they tested—even more than escalators, public phones and public bathrooms. To avoid picking up nasty bacteria, Gerba recommends using sanitizing wipes to clean off cart handles and seats, and to wash your hands after you finish shopping.

The grocery store that we frequent has a new towel dispensing device that I just noticed. It is located just before one enters the store, where you grab a cart if you need one. I never gave it a 2nd glance...how stupid These carts have to be moving disease bearing vehicles. Just think of how many people use them (do they all wash hands after taking a s**t?), how many kids sit in the carts (leaky diapers?), how many handkerchiefs are clutched in the hands of sick folks...I could go on and on but you get the picture I think.

How about the little handheld baskets that are good for about two 6-packs? They must me equally nasty.

Maybe they should steam clean these carts after every use before they go back in service. Wait until a little kid picks up AIDS and it is traced to a cart...a lawyers dream.

 

[Martha]

Aids from a shopping cart? I don't think so.

But yes, they have to be pretty nasty with cold and flu germs. When I go to the gym I always use the bottles of Purell that are scattered around the place.

 

[bright eyed]

i saw one the other day that looked like it had been retrieved, after a few weeks, months/years out on the street - ya know what i mean...it had some weird plastic bags that were cut off - tied to the bottom. i promptly chose another cart.

i heard that some stores don't clean them up after they are round up...from street life - that to me is irresponsible.

otherwise, i think germs are fine. i do have a cart cover for the baby, but thats cuz she likes to put her mouth on them and lick - why? i have no idea - guess it looks like a giant teething ring to her. oversanitizing everything is a bigger problem - super bugs/germs...we'll be wimps with no immune systems if we're all steam cleaned all the time. ah, life in a bubble.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This is why we use a Buggy Bagg. Worth every penny.

 

[OAG]

Gosh, we have to outlaw the military. Running around in swamps, going days if not weeks without showers (got an email from my Son this morning about his training at Camp Virgina in Kuwait pending his move to Baghdad sometime this month -- left out this morning for two to three days running around the dessert without showers or changes of clothing, etc.,), no running water in places, what a unhealthy occupation. Next are the Firemen and Police touching the unwashed of our society.

I think our bodies have the ability to fend off a lot (where is "Rich in Tampa", when you need him?), but, of course not all, the unhealthy stuff but we, as a society take daily showers, have been told from early childhood (who listened) to wash our hands after using the bathroom and getting dirt on our hands.

Cleaning the handle on the shopping cart is good but we put the food into the things and then put the cans, cartons, etc., on the shelf at home, so the "bad stuff" gets on everything.

 

[LOL!]

I thought you were writing about this shopping cart rant: YouTube - Great Canadian hockey commercial...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I think the big problems with the shopping cart lie somewhere between people sneezing on their hands and then putting their hands on the handle, and someone picking up a leaky package of chicken, grabbing the handle, and 5 minutes later a 1 year old starts nibbling on it.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

skin is amazingly protective. so just wash your hands before touching an orifice or open wound and you'll reduce your chances of getting aids from a shopping cart to practically zero.

 

[loosechickens]

Well, your chances of getting AIDS from a shopping cart are vanishingly close to absolute zero as it is.

We're of the school that believes that a certain level of exposure to germs is really good for keeping your immune system in good shape. We have relatives and friends that sanitize everything.

The funny thing is......neither of US has been sick for years, and it's probably been a dozen years since my last cold, while the sanitizing relatives seem to be sick a half dozen times a year. Go figure.

Too much coddling of our systems isn't good. Because then when they run into germs, they are like flabby suburbanites late at night in the inner city.....walking patsies.

I would make an exception here for people with compromised immune systems, such as cancer patients, the frail elderly, etc., but the rest of us would do good to give our bodies a chance to defend us once in a while.

When it gets where I feel that I have to dread shopping carts, public bathrooms, phones or anything else, or sanitize them before I touch, they might as well shoot me, because i never want to have to live like that.

LooseChickens

 

[haha]

Most supermarkets in this area now have dispensers for anti-microbial wipes. I use them religiously and haven't had a cold in two years. I think it also may have cut down on random GI upsets.

Ha

 

[ladelfina]

The horror!

This doesn't pertain to the cleanliness factor, but I thought I'd share this shopping-cart fun fact: In Italy you have to put a 1- or 2-euro coin in a little machine that unlocks the cart from the others. If you don't bring the cart back, you don't get your "security deposit". It's a little extra work but then they don't have to pay people to round up carts; carts don't go careening around the lot and bashing into cars; you don't see carts abandoned all over the place; the store saves money on casually stolen or wayward carts. (I guess a street person could "buy" a cart for a euro.. but there just don't seem to be large numbers of homeless here.)


I agree with loosechickens. There are a million places to pick up germs.. handling money, door handles.. and you don't pick up that package of chicken with rubber gloves, do you?


I may have shared this elsewhere, but here's an e-mail forwarded by sis (2 kids in pre-school) from some parents' forum:

I was wondering if there are any standards of how snacks are to be given in preschools in public schools in CT? In Branford I observed the teachers and aides cutting up apples, buttering crackers and giving grapes and snacks to the kids with their hands. They eat on a table that they were using to make play dough. The aide wipes the table once without using any
disinfectant or soap with a rag that is who knows how old. They mix their own juice in a pitcher. The kids wash their hands in the "kitchen" sink where the dishes are.

THE HORROR!!!

They gave snacks to the kids WITH THEIR HANDS!
They wash their hands IN THE KITCHEN SINK!!
They mix their own juice IN A PITCHER!!

I'm amazed they're not all dead by now!

 

[Moemg]

[quoteWe're of the school that believes that a certain level of exposure to germs is really good for keeping your immune system in good shape. We have relatives and friends that sanitize everything.

/quote]


I used to be of this school until this year when I went on a cruise and got the virsus from h---.I was in bed for almost three weeks .Sickest ,I've ever been in my life .I'm now of the sanitizer group.

 

[My Dream]

In Italy you have to put a 1- or 2-euro coin in a little machine that unlocks the cart from the others. If you don't bring the cart back, you don't get your "security deposit".

They do the same thing in Canada with a quarter. I think it's a good idea.

 

[maddythebeagle]

They do the same thing in Canada with a quarter. I think it's a good idea.

Aldai's does that as well....no need to round up the carts in the lot...

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

I'm amazed they're not all dead by now!

seriously. there's a lady at the gym who covers all the equipment with a thin sheet of plastic before her use. i guarantee she gets sick 10 times more than i do at least.

i think overuse of antibacterial soap is gonna bite us on our unprotected butts one day.

this is nothing more than the stuff your mom taught you: wash your hands and you'll be fine.

 

[Khan]

I've only been sick twice in the last two years. Both were [SIZE=-1]gastrointestinal 'bugs' and I was miserable for about 36 hours each time. Both were the day after grocery shopping.

I now have trained myself, when grocery shopping, not to touch any part of my face until I get home and wash my hands.

Seems to be working so far (8 months).

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