wow this is absolutely disgusting and quite disturbing. they need to start handing out latex gloves along with the shopping carts. you would think with the amount of people that use the shopping carts, more sanitary measures would be taken.
Though a repulsive statistic, it seems the sample size is quite small considering the number of shopping carts in the United States. Many grocery stores likely own more than 85 carts alone. However, the 72% result presents itself as a shocking statistic and because of it being newsworthy on an inner ring source, and the most popular source (Fox) there will assuredly be more moms whipping out sanitary wipes and not allowing their kids to sit in carts anymore & there may not be a pressing need to do so. It seems as though Americans are always scaring ourselves to death, worrying about street crime, chemicals in our soil, and other miniscule things that will take more time to kill us than preventable hazards, such as smoking or driving in our vehicles. Both of which are more dangerous, though not as gross, as fecal matter on our shopping carts. Even when stores promote reusable bags or still hand out plastic/paper bags, the reason the fecal matter is on carts in the first place is due to kids being placed in carts because their parent is trying to handle massive amounts of groceries and their kids and can't do so with bags in their hands.
I am now prouder and happier than ever that the majority of the food eaten at my house is grown by us and we do not have to take such risks by going to the grocery stores very often. It sickens me to think how many germs there are everywhere. Everyone goes to the grocery store and goes through the motions, probably without thinking about the consequences. At least there are some stores now who provide wipes at the door near the buggies. This really only impacts those people who care enough to take one of the wipes and semi-clean their cart. It is such a shame that such a topic that poses a potential problem to our health is very uncommon in the news. Stories like this that greatly impact nearly every person in the United States, in the world even, are rarely heard. We spend all of our time with the news hearing about crime and many other stories that have no great immediate impact on us, even if they impact us at all. Why can’t we be more informed?!
Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I find the coverage of this story hilarious. I think it fits well within our "moral panic" about germs. Fecal matter on shopping carts? Really? They have kids in them regularly, they sit outside, inside, and probably rarely get washed. Oh, and they often have GROCERIES in them...and produce is grown in/with "crap." Those organic carrots? Probably grown in poo. Same with all the other lovely organics and some conventional veggies, too, so of course it's going to transfer over. I won't even go into the conditions the meats are slaughtered in...but yeah, the shopping cart is the least of my worries.
Then there's mythbusters...a few years back the guys decided to tackle the legend about toilets shooting toilet water onto toothbrushes. What they found was that ALL of the toothbrushes, even the controls, tested positive for fecal matter, no matter where they were kept. Ew? Definitely. But honestly, the world is a dirty place.
And freaking out about some germs on shopping carts leads to more unnecessary sanitizing, which can lead to drug resistant bacteria that IS a problem! That's where I tie this into a moral panic; instead of worrying about any of the thousands of other issues we encounter in the grocery store (labor conditions of those who picked our foods, pesticides, transfats, salmonella in our peanut butter AGAIN, poo in the meat, etc) we scrub down that handle and feel safe in our diligence. Ha!
wow this is absolutely disgusting and quite disturbing. they need to start handing out latex gloves along with the shopping carts. you would think with the amount of people that use the shopping carts, more sanitary measures would be taken.
ReplyDeleteThough a repulsive statistic, it seems the sample size is quite small considering the number of shopping carts in the United States. Many grocery stores likely own more than 85 carts alone. However, the 72% result presents itself as a shocking statistic and because of it being newsworthy on an inner ring source, and the most popular source (Fox) there will assuredly be more moms whipping out sanitary wipes and not allowing their kids to sit in carts anymore & there may not be a pressing need to do so. It seems as though Americans are always scaring ourselves to death, worrying about street crime, chemicals in our soil, and other miniscule things that will take more time to kill us than preventable hazards, such as smoking or driving in our vehicles. Both of which are more dangerous, though not as gross, as fecal matter on our shopping carts. Even when stores promote reusable bags or still hand out plastic/paper bags, the reason the fecal matter is on carts in the first place is due to kids being placed in carts because their parent is trying to handle massive amounts of groceries and their kids and can't do so with bags in their hands.
ReplyDeleteI am now prouder and happier than ever that the majority of the food eaten at my house is grown by us and we do not have to take such risks by going to the grocery stores very often. It sickens me to think how many germs there are everywhere. Everyone goes to the grocery store and goes through the motions, probably without thinking about the consequences. At least there are some stores now who provide wipes at the door near the buggies. This really only impacts those people who care enough to take one of the wipes and semi-clean their cart.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a shame that such a topic that poses a potential problem to our health is very uncommon in the news. Stories like this that greatly impact nearly every person in the United States, in the world even, are rarely heard. We spend all of our time with the news hearing about crime and many other stories that have no great immediate impact on us, even if they impact us at all. Why can’t we be more informed?!
Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I find the coverage of this story hilarious. I think it fits well within our "moral panic" about germs. Fecal matter on shopping carts? Really? They have kids in them regularly, they sit outside, inside, and probably rarely get washed. Oh, and they often have GROCERIES in them...and produce is grown in/with "crap." Those organic carrots? Probably grown in poo. Same with all the other lovely organics and some conventional veggies, too, so of course it's going to transfer over. I won't even go into the conditions the meats are slaughtered in...but yeah, the shopping cart is the least of my worries.
ReplyDeleteThen there's mythbusters...a few years back the guys decided to tackle the legend about toilets shooting toilet water onto toothbrushes. What they found was that ALL of the toothbrushes, even the controls, tested positive for fecal matter, no matter where they were kept. Ew? Definitely. But honestly, the world is a dirty place.
And freaking out about some germs on shopping carts leads to more unnecessary sanitizing, which can lead to drug resistant bacteria that IS a problem! That's where I tie this into a moral panic; instead of worrying about any of the thousands of other issues we encounter in the grocery store (labor conditions of those who picked our foods, pesticides, transfats, salmonella in our peanut butter AGAIN, poo in the meat, etc) we scrub down that handle and feel safe in our diligence. Ha!