It’s been six months since we first learnt of Woolies’ trollies disinfectors, and my local Woolies was ROBBED. Robbed I tell you!!
In a now viral video from back in August, TikTok user Shereen Chadoud (@shereenchadoud) pushed her trolley into a funky little box, pushed a button, and voila! Her trolley was sprayed with disinfectant, and was now clean again!
The video has since been viewed more than 4.8 million times, and yet, my local Woolies still does not have one of these ingenious creations. Who must I complain to??
@shereenchadoud Thank you Woolworths for looking after us 🥰
♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
While this was the most viral of trolley-related TikToks, the first reports of trolley disinfectors in Woolworths stores are from April this year.
A Woolworths spokesperson told News.com.au back then that the trolley disinfectant unit was a new COVIDsafe initiative.
“As a food retailer, we already have very high standards of cleaning and hygiene in our supermarkets including the thorough cleaning of high touchpoint areas including shopping trolleys,” she said at the time.
“As part of our COVIDsafe program we are trialling a bespoke customer trolley disinfectant unit at our Oran Park store, which enables customers to push a trolley into a dedicated standalone unit where it is sprayed with disinfectant.
“By completing the cleaning process in under two seconds, the initiative is proving very popular with customers looking for a fast and efficient way to clean their trolleys.”
The trolly disinfector was initially trialled at Oran Park before being introduced to Bankstown, since that was a significant COVID hotspot in Sydney.
The Daily Mail reported that the disinfectors were to be dotted throughout Sydney’s LGAs of concern. Excuse me, but as someone who lives in one of these now-abolished LGAs of concern, I want to know where my magic cleaning box is!!
Ever since I was 19-years-old and saw a woman sneeze into her hand and then put that hand on the handle bar of her trolley, I have developed an irrational fear of how nasty those things can be.
I really want trolley disinfectors to become a common practice in Woolies stores because trolleys are grotty with or without a viral pandemic on our hands, and my germaphobe ass could actually relax if I knew I could get rid of any yuckies with the press of a button.
