NEWS 25 - WEHT: Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro-NEWS 25 Investigates: How Clean Are Shopping Carts?

NEWS 25 Investigates: How Clean Are Shopping Carts?

story by Courtney Fischer

EVANSVILLE - Whether you're buying gifts or food, holiday shoppers may be taking home more than just presents. Those shopping carts you push around could play host to bacteria. In a NEWS 25 investigation, we take a closer look at the carts--and what's on them.

Up and down the aisles shoppers grab this and touch that. You can see how easily germs spread. There's one place you're constantly putting your hands--and that's on the shopping cart.

"If someone coughs or sneezes, it's airborne. It can land on there. If you get in contact with that, you can pick it up," says shopper Samatha Jenkins.

Just how clean are shopping carts? As holiday shopping starts to pick up, these handles will get touched by hundreds of people a week.

"Never, I don't think I have sanitized a cart," one shopper tells us.

NEWS 25 taking a look at the bacteria on carts in three Evansville stores. The lab techs at St. Mary's Medical Center gave us culture swabs. We swabbed eight carts. Six carts came straight from the hands of shoppers. We cleaned two carts with sanitizing wipes offered by the store, then swabbed.

"I'm sure they're loaded, I'm sure they're very loaded."

"Oh sure they could be transferred, but like I say this time of year, we just wear gloves."

Mother of two, Misty Weiss, says she tries to shop at the stores offering sanitizer. Without wiping down, she's nervous germs on the cart could make her family sick.

"Oh I'm sure it could because you never know who has sneezed, coughed on it, and not wiped their hands--it's kind of gross to think about really," Weiss says.

St. Mary's will test our swabs for bacteria like Staph, E Coli, and fecal matter. We'll have the results for you Monday.