Shopping behavior has changed extremely over the years due to increasingly very busy lifestyles especially during this unfortunate period of COVID-19 and its variant, OMICRON. Whether it’s commuting, family obligations or school work, over one-third have less free time now compared with five years ago. Convenience comes with a cost and consumers are willing to pay it to have a convenient experience if it will save time, effort and less stress.

Retailers are consistently pushing out new innovations like the shopping center, online shopping, etc. Shopping center, also called shopping mall or shopping plaza is a convenience center containing independent retail stores, e.g. supermarket, etc. and services conceived, constructed and maintained by a management firm as a unit. There are so many reasons for the convenience that it offers to shoppers generally and also to its staff; availability of a wide range of items and services to choose from, flexibility in terms of space available, availability of parking areas, security and most importantly the control and prevention of the spread of the COVID-19 virus which has unfortunately affected the way we mingle and which spreads faster in crowded places, particularly indoors, like the shopping malls.

Billions of people walk through the supermarkets everyday because of the convenience that it offers among which is to safeguard them, their families and pets from infection. The question is; what are the safety measures in place, how are they enforced and how sufficient and reliable are they with the rapidly increasing number of shoppers that use the centers?
Here in Nigeria, a visit to most shopping centers reveal the application of the common measures according to the World Health Organization and the Nigerian Center for Disease Control like the wearing of a nose mask, control of body temperature and the disinfection of the hands before entry.

In May 2020, the World Health Organization released their regulations on the safety of food business from COVID-19 contamination. One of these rules is on how shopping carts or trolleys should be disinfected. ( https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-food-businesses). Are we complying with this rule? The answer is obviously no. Shoppers pick unsanitized carts, sanitize their hands at the entrance into the malls and finally walk in with their sanitized hands back on the unsanitized carts. Most of us touch our face, eyes and nostrils after touching unsanitized surfaces. Are Nigerians aware of the deposits of very harmful viruses and bacteria on these shopping carts and the fact that they can survive for 24 to 72 hours on different types of surfaces? Why is the World Health Organization emphasizing on disinfecting the carts?

The federal government recently warned, as reported in some national dailies (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/11/omicron-covid-were-on-alert-dont-be-complacent-fg-warns/) against complacency in the wake of the discovery of the COVID-19 variant, OMICRON. The word is not complacency but the cumbersome nature of the World Health Organization safety precautions in disinfecting the carts with the use of sanitizers and paper towels. That is why at Hygienic Carts (https://hygieniccart.com/home), we are redefining safety and at the same time bridging the gap between vaccination and disinfection. We’ve taken into consideration the health of shoppers and staff first, cost, convenience and time. Our automatic disinfecting machines are very affordable, free-standing, require only a power supply socket for installation and rid shopping carts of 99.8% of harmful viruses and bacteria within 5 to 8 seconds when they are passed through them eliminating the stress of using paper towels and sanitizers and restoring more confidence at the entrance.
We are based in Italy and our products are built with Italian components according to internationally-certified standard and quality.