TAMPA (WFLA) – During the pandemic, we’re all have been more conscious of the things we touch when we leave our homes, like shopping carts.

According to inventor, Adam Labadie 20 million grocery carts are touched a minimum of 200 times a day. Now the Tampa native has created a possible solution for a safer shopping experience…the Arch Cart Sanitizer.

“I wanted to have a brand and I wanted them to be comfortable knowing that they have a clean cart said Labadie.

The Arch Cart Sanitizer is an automated solution for grocery cart sanitation that uses EPA approved chemicals that kill COVID-19. Additionally, Labadie tells WFLA.com, his invention eliminates the use of one-time-use grocery store wipes.

“They actually make up the third-largest item in landfill is one-time use wipes and so I wanted to make our business sustainable that was my entire vision,” said Labadie. “This unit would be on a sidewalk or right in front of the entryway for the carts and the cart attendant…he would hit the remote, push the carts through like normal, no extra effort, and they can shut it off when they’re done.”

Other Arch Cart features include:  

-Electrostatic technology 
-EPA approved for outside spraying- no drain required 
-The Arch Cart has 2 models, one for indoor and outdoor use 
– Remote control or manual actuation 
– No limit on amount of carts

Labadie tells WFLA.com, he was laid off from his job as a consultant during the pandemic. Now, the husband and father of two is in talks with several national grocery chains.

“Five months in and we are ready to go for production, we’re actually talking with national grocers that are helping us with design and saying, ‘hey, look, we’d like to have this version inside and this version outside. We’d like it to look this way and we want to put our mission statement on it.”

Labadie estimates the Arch Cart Sanitizer will make it’s grocery store debut in the next 45-60 days. 

“I dream that one-day people walked up and be like, ‘hey, did it go through the Arch,” said Labadie. “I wanted to have a brand and I wanted them to be comfortable knowing that they have a clean cart.”