Bacteria and Grocery Store Carts!

[beans]

I'm certainly not a Inside Edition regular viewer or fan, but this popped up during my local news and thought it was something to consider!

Shopping Cart Investigative Report

I love my bottle of antibacterial gel.

[Basildog]

Big bloody wow! They found germs where people have been.Shock Horror!

Bacteria, Germs are everywhere.If they found them in a fridge, or on your cutlery, or on work surfaces where food is prepared, then you should worry.Or if you see people using a shopping trolley to stir their soup

[Varmint]

Gee, I guess I'll have to stop licking the cart handles.

Seriously, this is a big, "So what" to me. Of course they're nasty. Almost everything that is touched by people is nasty. Think of bathroom doorknobs -- you really think everyone washed their hands before leaving? Also, doesn't everyone who washes their hands also touch the sink valves?

Thus, I'm not going to lose any sleep over this.

[tommy]

nickels and quarters. YUCK!

[hjshorter]

I had to get over the shopping cart thing when the very first time I sat infant Emma in a cart, she leaned over and planted her mouth on the handle. Bleah.

[beans]

No, it isn't any surprise, but it is different to think of your shopping cart being host to the same stuff that you could basically squeegy off of a public toilet seat. Guess it is obvious I only have cats and not children.

[foodie52]

A customer paid for groceries in one dollar bills today. She handed me 65 of them.

She looked like a stripper...

I wonder where THOSE bills had been, huh?

[beans]

I once bartended in a strip club. I know where they've been ... Meh.

[joiei]

I do not use the convient infant seat on any shopping cart. I do not know when the last infant with a poopy diaper sat there.

[fifi]

I am not usually picky about dirty things... thinking a little dirt never hurt anybody and I am not dead yet. BUT... this is one of my pet peeves.

Don't they ever clean those things? And how about removing the garbage, circulars, notes, used kleenex.

Now that I think of it, the hand baskets are pretty gross, too. When I am just picking up a few things and grab a hand basket, I often have to go through several before I find one that at least LOOKS somewhat clean. There is no excuse.

Then there are the grubby conveyor belts at the check out. Is that chicken juice?

GAG!

[elyse]

I do not use the convient infant seat on any shopping cart. I do not know when the last infant with a poopy diaper sat there.

And you put your child where?

[sparrowgrass]

if you see people using a shopping trolley to stir their soup

And even that would be ok as long as they bring the soup to a good hard boil after stirring.

[Cusina]

The ones that get me are the carts that look like little trucks. Of course, the concept is very fun and every toddler beggs to ride in one. And of course they are filthy. I feel like the mean mom but my kids definitely don't get to "drive" their way through the store.

[GG Mora]

Didn't you all read the article in the biz section of the NYT on Sunday, the one where Paul Newman confides that he stirred his first giant batch of salad dressing with a canoe paddle?

[fresco]

No, it isn't any surprise, but it is different to think of your shopping cart being host to the same stuff that you could basically squeegy off of a public toilet seat.  Guess it is obvious I only have cats and not children. 

It seems, according to this story, that toilet seats have been getting um, a bum rap and and desk tops have on average 400 times more germs:

http://www.abc.net.au/wa/stories/s557278.htm

[Pickles]

I had to get over the shopping cart thing when the very first time I sat infant Emma in a cart, she leaned over and planted her mouth on the handle. Bleah.

How about people putting food in the "seat" compartment where your little darling's leaking diapered bum has sat or handling that exact cart handle of which you just spoke--the one your baby's spit's been on. BLEH is right. Betcha never thought of that! On a funny note....I was once pushing my cart around the store and I turned and stopped to get some eggs and ended up in a "traffic jam" with a young mom and her young-un. The young-un began TEETHING on a stalk of fresh brussells sprouts I had hanging off the...."diapered butt compartment."

[beans]

Then there are the grubby conveyor belts at the check out. Is that chicken juice?

GAG!

You read my mind!

[hjshorter]

How about people putting food in the "seat" compartment where your little darling's leaking diapered bum has sat or handling that exact cart handle of which you just spoke--the one your baby's spit's been on. BLEH is right. Betcha never thought of that!

You would be wrong. If my kid's diaper ever leaked (it has never happened in public) I would of course clean it up. That's also why the seat compartment has a flap that folds down to put your kid on. Flip it up if you use that area for groceries. Same if she mouths something, I wipe it off.

[foodie52]

Or you can do what one of my customers does....

Wear white gloves.

Double bag everything you buy, in plastic bags.

Insist on handing all your groceries directly to the checker, thus avoiding using the contaminated belt.

Wear aluminum foil under your hat to protect against harmful microwave rays zipping through the air.

[beans]

foodie52: you forgot the hazmat suit!

[hillbill]

Or you can do what one of my customers does....

Wear aluminum foil under your hat to protect against harmful microwave rays zipping through the air.

I've been wearing the aluminum foil skullcap to protect myself from alien space invaders trying to read my mind but I'm glad to hear that it also gives me the additional anti-microwave protection.

Edited November 18, 2003 by hillbill (log)

[=Mark]

One of the filthiest places on the planet is the human mouth. If you want to keep your foods as germ free as possible, do everything you can to avoid letting them get anywhere near a human mouth.

[hillbill]

A customer paid for groceries in one dollar bills today. She handed me 65 of them.

She looked like a stripper...

I wonder where THOSE bills had been, huh?

[tryska]

heh.

[fresco]

Maybe some of the experts could shed some light here, but I'd always thought the over-fastidious avoidance of dirt, bacteria and germs was more potentially dangerous than exposure to them.