Hy-vee To Install Cart Sanitation Machines At More Than 200 Stores

Two Hy-Vee stores in the Cedar Rapids area will be among the 200-plus in the Midwest to implement an automatic cart sanitation system by mid-November “at the earliest,” Hy-Vee spokeswoman Dawn Buzynski told The Gazette Tuesday.The Marion Hy-Vee and the Cedar Rapids Hy-Vee on Wilson Avenue are scheduled to be the first in the Corridor to receive the technology, Buzynski said.The four-by-six-foot-system, Sterile Cart, uses a “a low-pressure spray system and a dry-in-place disinfectant” to sanitize carts quickly as they go through the box, according to a news release.Kristin Davidson, president of Sterile Cart’s distributor, Mound, Minn.-based Ultra Green Packaging, said the system can clean one to two carts per second.“The Sterile Cart system uses a hospital-grade disinfectant that is proven to kill 99.9 percent of germs and viruses that cause illnesses, including coronavirus,” Davidson said in the statement.The West Des Moines-based grocer has been manually sanitizing carts “regularly” on any given day.