Three years ago I read on these boards how to make a shopping cart liner for the baby. I thought what a brilliant idea! In the Winter the carts are always dripping wet. And all those nasty people sneezing and coughing and wiping their butts and touching the cart!
So I had this very light blanket-it was actually a sleeping bag liner. I brought it with me shopping and it lined the whole cart and kind of hung over like when you put a baggie in a glass to fill it.
Once my son's friend went with me he was so humiliated he walked through the store like he didn't know me. Once my husband went with me and he was humiliated however he knows better than to pretend he doesn't know me if you know what I mean!
The third time a little girl asked her Mommy after peeking into the cart "Mommy why doesn't that lady have a baby in there?" and the Mom looked sadly at me shook her head and said "I don't know honey I just don't know".
I felt like a moronic idiot with mental disorders.
When I light bulbed this idea I thought everyone would think I was a genius! I thought I could sell these at the entrance to the store it would catch on so well.
Instead I got looked at like I had a horn with poop on it in the middle of my forehead.

What do you think? Am I Einstein or Idiot? (and please just use this incident as a reference LOL)
Should I do this again? Will YOU do it?

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I wouldn't use one and I haven't seen anyone use one that didn't have a baby. If I saw one without a baby, I would probably think OMG...the baby fell out! Where's the baby???

I use the disposable wipes they have by the carts when I grab one.

Should you do it again? Well...it depends on if the reaction you get/got bothers you

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Yeah I wouldn't use one either. I don't think you're an idiot -- just a little OCD perhaps, lol.

I'm with sexysmurf on this one. I use the disposable wipes if they have them. If not, I use purell when I get back to my car. My box of spaghetti will have to just deal with it.

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- Stephen Colbert.

guess it'd be useful for those days you go in and starts pouring rain before you get out.... grab all the corner and toss the bundle into the back and sort the mess when you get home. But no i wouldnt use it either.

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I don't understand the need to line the whole shopping cart. I understand the liner thingy in the seat area to cushion the baby. However, I think it is rather OCD to line the whole cart. In fact, I'm about to LOL just trying to visualize the people in the store giving you strange looks.

Our grocery store also has the antibacterial disposable wipes to wipe the carts down with.

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Sorry this made me LOL because I was visualizing myself doing that with the huge basket of food I bought on Saturday. Me strong like bull (said in my best Eastern European accent)! Thanks for the laugh

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Cecilia

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I guess I'm with the dirty messy wiping my butt crowd, lol.
I don't care if you use one but I don't think you are an idiot,
but I would never use one and I also don't use antibacterial wipes or liquids. I am not afraid of people's dirt, don't think about it and doesn't bother me. My family and I are only sick about once a year.

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I wouldn't do it, either. I'm trying to understand why? I mean, I get that you're trying to avoid germs, but unless you have a compromised immune system or a reason not to come in contact with germs I don't get it? I just wash my hands when I get home. We're rarely sick. We get the occasional cold, but I can't remember the last time any of us were really sick. Coming in contact with germs also helps build your immune system.

Lisa

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I can understand if a person has OCD or if carts are exceedingly wet & nasty a call for these things. Most folks, though, aren't overly concerned with germs, and most grocery stores will have some drier carts, covered cart corrals outside, kids who wipe them, or they'll be lined up under a heater & fan to dry.
If the idea behind your gizmo is to keep germs off the groceries you put in the cart I don't think it's a practical idea. There will already have been X amount of folks already handling those food packages and touching the shelves, they'll go onto the conveyor to the cash register that can be germy, and then the cashier will touch each item as he/she rings it up.
If the idea is to keep your items dry in a wet cart, I have never seen a cart *so* wet that I'd worry about it, and just pushing it around for a minute or two will cause the the air moving around it to swish away water droplets. I keep a small microfiber cloth in one of my shopping bags (bring my own) to warm up cold cart handles and it could be used to dry any part of the cart that may need it.
I don't think you're an idiot at all, I just don't think there is much of a call for your item in most parts of the country. With most stores having dispensers of anti-b wipes near the carts, and most places I've shopped keeping empty carts inside or in a covered corral, it solves a lot of the probs you had with the wet carts. Maybe a better solution for you would be to suggest those things at the grocery store where you shop? If carts are so wet that a lot of folks complain it would make sense for the store to make customers happy. But it sounds like the solution you came up with up was for more of a prob you have as an individual vs. a mass need.
If those things aren't available where you shop and you are happy with using your creation I wouldn't worry too much about odd looks, to each his/her own I say, says I ;-)
MZ

Count me in with the chorus of those who wouldn't have a need for such a contraption, especially if people are going to look at me like I'm an idiot. LOL

If I remember an old discussion on hotel rooms, I recall annadrose being a little squeamish about germs and what not....so whatever helps with that, I guess it's all good!

cj/

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Wow. I guess apparently I must have OCD too then because I TOTALLY can understand why you thought it was a great idea, and if I wasn't so lazy to remember to tote something like this around I probably would do it. Ugh it grosses me out SO much to think about all the nasty germs that are in/on carts. I mean how many times do you go to get a cart out of the row of them and you find a dirty tissue, or worse - something you can't even make out what it is. Those carts never get washed, and people's hands/kids (shoes/bottoms, etc) are in there alll day long. GROSS!! I think I am totally talking myself into doing something like this...unless I am completely thinking of something other than what you described, you are not an idiot, and I'm kinda surprised by all the responses here..

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annadrose,
You aren't an idiot! I agree that those germs freak me out too. But I only see the liners for babies. So I think you should borrow a baby if you want to use a liner.
Seriously I wish more moms used them. I cringe when I see a baby putting its mouth on the handles!



Thanks for making me laugh. I was so sad over the last post and I needed the laugh!
Shirley

LuvMy2GirlyGirls,
If we lived and shopped where annadrose does we could all use them and it might catch on. Just think of all the sales annadrose would get when they saw all of us. We could be starting a new trend.

Or maybe they would think "wow 2 more idiots" .... ( I am just kidding )

Annadrose I agree with you 100 percent I am also a total neat freak and hate hate germs. Your not a idiot at all please hon do not call yourself that at all.When you seriously think about how many people visit the stores each day and hold on to the cart you do not know what is in there hands. That is why I always carry wipes and hand santizer just to be safe. Also hon I remember when my kids were small I was always freaking out if someone wanted to kiss my brand new babies no way no how. I know we cannot as parents when our kids were small be able to protect them very every germ, but again we tried very hard. Peace. CAtherine

I've never, ever seen anyone use a liner in the whole cart. If I'm understanding correctly, the OP wasn't using a liner in the baby seat part.

I wouldn't use one but obviously, I'm not as concerned about germs as you seem to be. I'm curious as to how this blanket liner could protect against germs. Blankets aren't cheap enough to be disposable and it seems to me that carrying that blanket home to be washed would just bring home the germs that would have otherwise have been left in the cart at the store. ? ? ?

I don't mind germs.. it keeps my immune system in shape.

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Okay I guess I am a weirdo I thought you would all jump up and say What a great idea!
Instead only three of you are as weird as I am! LOL

It's not so much the germs although in the winter people ARE sneezing and coughing and it does gross me out. The rain in Oregon is bad and often the whole row of carts is dripping wet. If I am doing a big shopping I don't want my cereal boxes and stuff to be soaked when I get home.

But they say if you are the only one and everybody else thinks it's cuckoo then...it might just be cuckoo.

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I wouldn't use one, I think it would just be something else to carry to the store. I have my box of coupons. I don't think your an idiot. When others came up with some of thier ideas alot of people thought they were nuts and then sold millions.

carry a piece of a sham wow thing for the wet cart put it in a baggie til you get home and wash it and a little bottle of hand stuff after you've used the carts, less to carry than a blanket thing that covers the whole cart.

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I guess my thinking is that I have been eating food that has come home from grocery stores all my life and don't get sick often.... and even when I am sick, I can usually figure out who I picked up the germ from (a friend, one of my kids who picked up what was going around at school, etc). I go lots of places during the course of the day, and have never perceived the grocery store as being at the top of the list of places in which I need a high level of protection from germs.

Add to that the fact that the shelf-stocker kid may very well have picked his nose right before putting those bags of rice on the shelf, and some child may have picked it up while wandering by before Mommy noticed it in his snotty little hands and returned it to the shelf...

In other words, the packages on the shelves aren't sanitary to begin with.

The handle of a shopping cart is probably germy from dirty hands and baby snot. The little kid seat is probably germy, because people put their purses on bathroom floors and then put those same purses on that little seat-surface thing in the cart. But the *insides* of the cart - at least around here - never have anything in them but groceries. There is so little actual surface area to the inside of a cart, given that they aren't a solid surface and are mostly just holes, that I'm having a hard time envisioning a box of cereal coming into contact with lots of germs OR water. At least with our carts, there are far more square inches of 'hole' than 'wire'.

I guess from my perspective, if the issue is the germs, in the grand scheme of things, the grocery store isn't a deal-breaker.

And if the issue is moisture, it would seem much more effective to just take a paper towel along, quickly dry it off inside, and then put the paper town in a baggie - or even a tupperware container if you're into using only re-usable containers - and tossing the paper towel into your paper recyclables when you get home. Otherwise, if you bring home the wet blanket, you're bringing home whatever germs you wanted to avoid and creating more laundry for yourself. And unless you wear gloves while handling the blanket, you're picking up those very germs you were seeking to avoid as you take it off the cart, put it in the laundry, etc.

I guess it wouldn't be too much trouble to take a towel to wipe it with I already carry a tote bag with 25 reusable bags and my lists, coupons, etc.
I am going on a big shopping today I will put a towel in my tote bag.

As for the germs I do realize I am a little more neurotic about this than most people! I have to deal with it.

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I kept trying to visualize what you were describing. Now that I see you meant the whole cart; I would line the bottom with a disposable trash bag....wouldn't that solve the problem of a) dampness from the cart wetting your cereal box and b) the germs from kids shoes when they step into the cart c) not bringing the germs home

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oops!
I have only seen the seat part covered.



.

Another good idea Sue! I knew either you guys would agree with me or come up with something good.

You NEVER let me down!

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If I lived in a place that rained a lot I could see using something like that. I hate when all the carts are dripping and I'm shopping for things that would get wrecked if they got wet. I live in So. CA where it rains very little so when the cart is wet it stays wet. There is nothing to driy them off like heaters or people. I don't mind germs but I don't like wet.