With cold and flu season right around the corner,
it is becoming easier and easier to become sick. Day after day we all venture
to the grocery store, Target, or Walmart to buy things we need. Little do we
realize, that we are exposed to viruses and bacteria, which are present on the
shopping carts. Imagine touching a shopping cart, which has the flu virus. You
then touch an item in the produce section of the store and the cycle
continues!! Imagine having a baby sit in that nasty cart?!! The disease can
shift from person to person and cause a disease that could have been prevented
to begin with.
We chose to go to Sweetbay Supermarket because we
get our every day needs from there, and we found it great that they practice
promotion of public health. As soon as you walk into the grocery store, they
have hand sanitizer and hand wipes right on the wall by the shopping carts. You
can quickly wipe down the cart that has been used by many people before you and
prevent yourself from getting sick. On top of that, if your hands are clean,
the next person who uses the cart won't be contaminated. You won't touch an
apple with dirty hands and put it back.
We put our sticker directly on the hand wipes to encourage people to
reduce contamination and migration of the cold and flu virus on top of skin
diseases. If more people use the wipes and hand sanitizer, the spread of
bacterial and viral transmission can drastically decrease. Hopefully next time
you go into your nearest grocery store, you'll sanitize your hands and cart. Otherwise,
you're shopping at your own risk! SAVE THE APPLES!!!
Shopping cart safety was a great topic to cover! I like it because grocery shopping is something everyone does at some point within the week or month and not many people are aware of the amounts of germs are present on carts, products...even apples! I personally go to the grocery store at least once every week and I've never really concerned myself with using hand sanitizer before and after using the carts. I think it would be beneficial for the majority, if not all, grocery stores to have something like hand sanitizer or hand wipes for the population to utilize. I believe this will help reduce the risk for the spread of any harmful bacteria.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah this is something we never really think about! Not only do we keep ourselves healthy, but we also keep the food products free from contamination as well! As an extension of the babies sitting in potentially dirty carts, I've seen some mothers carry a cushion covering type thing they place in the carts for their babies to sit on and protect them from lurking bacteria. I know I personally tend to ignore the cart wipes and sanitizers in the entryway, and I guess its just because I never really thought about transferring potentially harmful bacteria to the food as well. Perhaps the makers of these signs can better emphasize that the use of their sanitary products merely keeps YOU healthy as a consumer!
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ReplyDeleteI think it is wonderful that stores are now actively trying to keep their customers healthy. This is truly an awesome example of Public Health at work. Many people do not think twice about the cleanliness of shopping carts but some can be dirty or infested with germs, which can cause sickness among consumers. An added bonus is that some people might feel compelled to use the wipes because “everyone else is doing it.”
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful type of public health! Everyone has to go to some sort of grocery store, and I don't think most of us realize how much we come into contact with germs. I think that it's great stores are showing concern for their customers by providing these, and I think that if everyone got in the habit of wiping down their carts before and after similar to wiping down a machine at the gym, we would all be in better health and have better public health habits.
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