How to Avoid Germs at the Grocery

Most bags are not fabric but plastic.

Ebola in the US. From one guy infected in Dallas, Texas to a possible 100 in a just a few days.

It's scary to think how quickly germs spread and how quickly something like the ebola virus could alter our lives here in America forever.

I've never been a germaphobe but I started thinking about it a couple years ago when a middle-aged grocery checker sneezed INTO HIS HAND in the middle of grabbing each of my items to run across his scanner. At that point I thought there had to be a better way, especially at the grocery where such a large cross section of humanity congregates with various levels of hygiene who subsequently touch all the dang stuff. And those sanitary wipes at the entrance?  Well, they're only effective if you let the surface totally dry before putting your hands on whatever you just cleaned and even then they may be encouraging the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria superbugs. Super bugs?! Do you want super bugs?!? Or America do you want a better way?

Then I noticed the produce guys.

Instead of paper, plastic or cheap imported reusable bags, why didn't we shop with collapsible bins like the produce guys use?  We could bring our own bins into the store!  We could set them in our carts so they stack neatly - and keep our stuff OFF the floor of the cart where some kid with their dirty shoes was just jumping around! We could wipe them down with hot water and bleach so they're free from any disease-causing E. coli bacteria! We could then collapse them when we're done! Perfect!

But how to get more than one collapsible crate into the store?  And if they don't nest like the store's basket with solid handles, what do you do about the cheap plastic handles most of them come with? And then, in less time than it took to say BAN PLASTIC BAGS (which would include reusable ones since that's what they are - yep, a nonwoven polypropylene is still POLYPROPYLENE), my solution was born: CRESBI Crates!  Yeah, its a weird name. But catchy, huh?  And CRESBI crate systems are S-W-E-E-T and hard to resist once you try one, like Krispy Kreme Donuts but without the calories.

And CRESBI, unlike SPANX, actually stands for something: the Collapsible Reusable Environmentally-friendly Stackable Box Idea. So there. Instead of flimsy plastic handles, you get a strong, made-in-America strap that can be attached on the sides or on top for hands-free action. Instead of a wad of dirty, unequally-sized reusable bags stuffed in a master dirty bag (face it - when was the last time you washed yours?) you bring in your choice of systems containing the number of collapsible crates that match your shopping patterns. And instead of handling all of your items twenty million times, you place them in your open crates once as you shop, barcodes up and have the checker scan it all right in the crates!

Since most foods are mass-produced and packaged, now its only me and the stock boy who are placing our mitts on that can of tuna fish.  Like abstinence prevents pregnancy, not touching a source of germs prevents getting those particular germs every time its tried. Stay healthy, America! Get a CRESBI Crate system!

Just sayin'.