Grocery Shopping Carts

Anybody wash shopping Carts? If so, would you share some info like chemicals, price, and any other advice.

University of AZ just did a four state study that revealed 50% had E. Coli and even more had a huge range of bacteria. They found 72% (I think it was 72%) had feces (poop). They claimed the carts were dirtier than a grocery store restroom. Thought this might be a selling point!

There are several companies that travel the country doing cart washing & repairs…new wheels,child safety straps etc. and they work way cheaper than most contract cleaners can.

We looked into this a few years back. What you found is true. Repairs often go with the service of pw so we haven’t really sold it. Other than bleach as the primary dissenfectant i dont know what else is needed. I know there are some posts with specific chemicals and othe grits that do provide this service on the PWI board. If you don’t find what you want here you can pop over there and do some searching.

We clean shopping carts in Phoenix but we usually on clean them for companies that we already clean their concrete for.

I don’t know if you want to share, but any info would be appreciated… chemicals, money, is it worth it, how you go about it… I’m not greedy, I just want to know everything!!!

I will share we charge anywhere between .50 to $1.00 per cart, but sometimes it is better to roll it into your price for cleaning the store front and then tell them the carts are free! They like to hear that… we tell them to put out half their carts every time we show up for their cleanings, I use steaming hot water and downstream an enzyme on the carts that kills 99.999% of bacteria.

That’s about the price I was thinking and I like the idea of rolling it into other services. Some day when I grow up I’ll have heated water too! Till then, do you think I could just “Blow” those bacteria off with cold water and an enzyme or get rid of this line of thought? Be gentle with me, I’m an old man!!!

Honestly, you really can’t sanitize without hot water, but you can sell anyone on anything.

I was affraid of that. I would rather be honest about what I am selling… I am funny that way! Thanks.

the steaming hot water doesnt destroy the enzyme?

Yes hot water kills our enzyme we dont turn on the burner until rinsing after we apply

You can actually do a test with a swab through a luminometer for our customers to test the bacteria levels, it is a great selling point!

I’m guessing that bleach would rust the carts?

Seems like most carts now are mostly plastic with metal frames. Do that make a diff in what you would use?

No plastic carts are majority of what we do, and we do not use bleach that is definitely not the right product to use because little kids put their mouths on carts and if it was not rinsed properly for whatever reason you would have a serious lawsuit on your hands. Look into bacteria eating enzymes.