Thursday, March 25, 2010

Gross-ery Carts

I spend quite a few hours icing cakes at work, and sometimes my thoughts drift off into places I probably shouldn't go. For instance, the other day, I was decorating a teddy bear cake, and I could hear some kind of commotion going on in the meat department (it's on my left), so I stopped what I was doing and went to take a look. What I saw was one of the guys throwing garbage into a grocery cart. WTF??? There's no way he's allowed to do that... is he? When he saw me looking at him, he just smiled and told me that he was about to make a trip out to the compacter.

I returned to the bakery to finish working on the teddy bear cake, but I couldn't concentrate. People put food in grocery carts, and this guy was using one to haul out the trash. EWWWW!! What if he puts the cart back with all of the others without bothering to clean it with some disinfectant spray first? Heck, are the carts ever cleaned at all to begin with?? At that point, I literally had to stop what I was doing and go ask one of the service clerks (the guys who round up the grocery carts outside and bring them back into the store) if the carts ever get sanitized. He had no idea. So, I asked another guy. Again, no idea. The third guy that I asked said that the rain washed the carts when they were outside. Uh, OK, buddy.

Back I went to the bakery with my mind still turning over thoughts about food being put into grocery carts that are never disinfected. Not good, not good at all. Sure, we put fruits and veggies in plastic bags, and most other food items come packaged some way or another (ex. soup in a can, cereal in a box, etc), but the food is still being placed into dirty carts, and traces of whatever is in those carts is getting on those packages, and then being transferred to tables, counters, cupboards or wherever we're putting our groceries when we get home. EWWW!!!!

At that point, I should have stopped thinking about dirty grocery carts and gone to my happy place or something, but my next thought was inevitable. Just how dirty are the carts, really? It's one of those things you want to know, but don't want to know. Know what I mean? Anyway, I figured a little digging around on the Internet would surely turn up something, so I gave Eddy a call on my break and had her do a Google search.

Me: Hey, it's me.

Eddy: Hi, aren't you at work?

Me: Yeah, I'm on my break. I need you to Google something for me.

Eddy: OK, what?

Me: I want to know how dirty grocery carts are.

Eddy: Huh? Where's this coming from all of a sudden?

Me: I'll tell you the whole story later because I only have a few minutes. Can you find out?

Eddy: Yeah, hold on.

Me: OK, cool.

For the next 30 seconds all I heard was Eddy clicking away at her keyboard, and then...

Eddy: Disgusting!!

Me: You found something?

Eddy: Yeah, you sure you want to know?

Me: Yup, tell me.

Eddy: Well, it turns out that the University of Arizona conducted a four year study and discovered all kinds of nasty stuff --- urine, fecal matter, saliva, blood from raw meat, E-coli, salmonella, staphylococcus, and....

Me: Sick!!!

Eddy: Got that right. Basically, they're worse than public bathrooms.

Me: WHAT??? No way!!

Eddy: Yes. It's because the bathrooms are cleaned daily and the carts aren't.

Me: OMG, that's right. EWW!!!

Eddy: Yeah, forget grocery carts. It's more like gross-ery carts.

Me: Big time gross.

Eddy: Uh huh.

Me: Alright, I have to go. Thanks for checking.

Eddy: Sure. You should definitely blog about this, by the way.

Me: It's gonna freak everyone's freak.

Eddy: Yup.

Me: OK, I'll talk to you later.

Eddy: Yeah... and stay away from the carts.

Me: Hahaha, I will.


Will you???

JB

21 comments:

  1. Yep, and we put our kids in there too! I've noticed a lot of places around here have cleaning towels to wipe down the carts with at the door.

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  2. Can't be worse than what's on some people's hands who touch the food...

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  3. Yeah, that IS gross! It almost makes a person want to bring their own cart to shop with. At least if ours is dirty, we have an idea what it's from.


    *BTW --- I'm on Facebook -- look me up.

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  4. thank you for bursting my bubble *grin* i've wondered about this, but not as deeply as you. yuck!!!!!

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  5. I will seriously have to reconsider the two second rule when it comes to grocery carts.

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  6. Yuck! thats horrible....people put their babies in the carts...
    good you blogged bout it....
    Cant we bring our own carts..?

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  7. I was a crazy hypochondriac before reading this. Thanks!!

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  8. @mom...yeah but why should we have to do all the work. At the price of food these day you would think they would at least have the common sense to care about the customers. Thanks for stopping in.

    huggs
    jb

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  9. @jeff..ya! I know but still we put our foods in these carts. The again we touch everything that's not nailed down you have a good point. Nice to see you drop in Jeff.

    huggs
    jb

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  10. @Breath...they should pay us to bring our own carts...it is gross but then again like Jeff said we touch all that food so I don't know. I hope all is good with you.

    huggs
    jb

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  11. @Lin..yes sir gross indeed...thanks for the visit.

    @Shadow...yeah I wonder a lot when I'm in an icing trance and all the things around me look like snow white.

    @Charles...2 second rule ...yeah more like holy crap these carts smell like crap. Thanks for leaving a comment.

    Pavitra...yes you can bring your own carts but why don't they do just do what is right; buy new ones or clean/spray the old ones, holy shit what we pay for food these days they should care about the customers...but that would be tooooo much right!!!!

    huggs to all of you,
    jb

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  12. Anna...bring your own bags next time. Sorry for making it worse. I hope you are well my love. I miss you and listen what was it that you wanted to tell me. Please send me your email. You can find my email on my blog ok..send me yours. I will not disclose it to anyone I promise.

    huggs
    jbxo

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  13. I missed you (and the smile you put on my face...)

    That's all ;D

    Love,

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  14. I wish I hadn't touched the cart in Target this weekend. Thank goodness no food was placed in it, but still - Eww!

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  15. @izzie...thanks for always coming by and leaving such nice words for me. I hope all is well with you.

    huggs
    jb

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  16. @pictures...yeah touching the carts is Ewww but what can you do someone has got to puch the damn thing around. Thanksss for the comment and sorry for grosssing you out!!

    huggs
    jb

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  17. LOL I love that someone asked if they could bring their own carts! It's one of those instances where it's better to not know this kind of information, but nonetheless thank you for sharing!

    Love your blog thanks so much for stopping by mine!!! Following you now!

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  18. I guess that's why someone invented those little covers for people who put their babies in the cart.

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  19. OMG! I think I'll speak with the store manager and have them clean the grocery carts like we do with our cars! Bleach or sanitizer product is a MUST! UHGH! We need to speak up! Raise the food prices for I could care less to cover the cost; I'd rather not to get sick!
    Thanks for sharing...

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  20. I am so completely grossed out now ughhhhhhhh

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Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Check back for my response and/or Eddy's. We love hearing from you! Peace, JB (blog owner) and Eddy ("super great cuz" & frequent guest blogger)

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