MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. – Hy-vee supermarket chain claims to be first in the nation to install an automated grocery cart cleaning system, an effort to calm fears about COVID-19. Hy-Vee spokeswoman Dawn Buzynski said the Sterile Cart system is like a mini car wash for shopping carts. They are being made at IZZA Manufacturing in Buffalo, Minnesota, west of the Twin Cities.
The machine sanitizes the carts from top to bottom, not just the high-touch area’s, and is said to be 99.9% effective in killing germs and viruses like COVID-19.
“Customers don’t have to do anything. They grab their cart and it’s fully sanitized with the system and then they return the cart and employees put it through the sterile cart system after every use,” she said.
The system has a very small footprint, about four-by-six feet, and it can cleanse one to two carts per second. Buzynski says it eliminates the need for store employees to manually wipe down every cart throughout the day.
