Patent Application
20080001041
The present invention addresses problems relating to the arrangement and organization of plastic shopping bags in a shopping trip, and more broadly to the general organization and cohesion of items that are difficult to consolidate or unify.
Grocery shopping, as an oft thankless domestic task, presents challenges in the realm of time management and overall convenience that are too numerous to mention. Anything to make such a task easier or more pleasant would likely be highly welcome.
One oft encountered problem is in the efficient organization and management of plastic grocery shopping bags. Normally, a shopper must wrestle with great numbers of these as he or she is transporting filled plastic bags to his or her vehicle and, once home, from the vehicle to the interior of his or her residence. This awkward and unwieldy task is, on many occasions, not helped in the least by grocery workers who seem content to minimize the number of items placed in each bag, thus artificially increasing the number of bags that the shopper needs to handle.
Problems with handling and organizing grocery bags are also reminiscent of other organizational tasks, both on the domestic front and in the workplace, where normally disparate or loose items beg for some greater degree of organization or cohesion.
A growing and compelling need has thus been recognized in connection with providing a relatively user-friendly and easy medium for facilitating the organization and handling of plastic grocery shopping bags or of essentially any items that are typically difficult to consolidate or unify.
In summary, one aspect of the invention provides an item organizer comprising: a first elongated member; a second elongated member extending from the first elongated member; the first and second elongated members combining to define therewithin a space for accommodating at least portions of items; the first elongated member acting to accommodate a plurality of looped items thereabout; the second elongated member terminating at an introduction gap for introducing looped items therethrough to the therethrough to the accommodating space; the second elongated member being elastically deformable to alter a width of the introduction gap.
For a better understanding of the present invention, together with other and further features and advantages thereof, reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.
It will be readily understood that the components of the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in the Figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of the embodiments of the apparatus, system, and method of the present invention, as represented in
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” (or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
The illustrated embodiments of the invention will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals or other labels throughout. The following description is intended only by way of example, and simply illustrates certain selected embodiments of devices, systems, and processes that are consistent with the invention as claimed herein.
As shown, carrier 100 preferably includes an upper portion or half that itself includes a long arm 102, a stub arm 104 and a gap 106 that separates these arms 102/104 from one another. Long arm 102 and stub arm 104 each preferably extend from an entire lower portion or half 108. The upper portion 102/104 and lower portion 108 define a large opening 110 therebetween as shown.
As shown, lower portion 108 is preferably gently curved and is symmetrical about a central transverse axis F-F. The upper portion 102/104 is nearly a mirror image of lower portion 108 except, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, for some dimensional differences to be described herebelow and for the introduction of gap 106 between long arm 102 and stub arm 104.
Preferably, carrier 100 may be formed from a strong molded plastic or polymeric material that is sufficient for supporting about lower portion 108 a number of filled plastic shopping bags. Preferably, then, gap 106 is sufficiently large to permit the introduction therethrough of looped shopping plastic bag handles to allow the ensemble of the carrier 100 and shopping bags hung thereon to be sufficiently supported and carried. Preferably, the carrier 100 will be held in the hand like an egg, such that a user grips around a lower surface (or underside) of lower portion 108. As such, if there are looped handles of shopping bags (or other looped items) disposed about lower portion 108, the user's fingers may be interspersed between, or may flank, such looped handles or items.
As such, carrier 100 is preferably sufficiently large as to permit at least four fingers (i.e., all fingers but the thumb) of an average human hand to grip about its entirety; for instance, four fingers may preferably wrap around the underside of lower portion 108 as just described, while the thumb may go elsewhere for additional stabilization or support (e.g., on an upper side of long arm 102). At the same time, space 110 is preferably sufficiently large to accommodate several looped plastic shopping bag handles therewithin which will hang about lower portion 108. In the context of exemplary dimensions to be described herebelow, it is indeed possible for carrier 100 to support up to four or five completely full plastic shopping bags from a grocery store or supermarket.
While
On the other hand,
As shown in
Opening 110, as shown, may have a maximum transverse dimension defined in a vertical direction with respect to
Also, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, lower portion 108 will generally be thicker than long arm 102. Sample dimensions shown are an apical thickness (i.e., a thickness defined at a central transverse axis of carrier 100) of about 0.250 inch for lower portion 108 and about 0.188 inch for long arm 102. It will be appreciated that the greater thickness of lower portion 108 will help provide even stronger support for shopping bags looped thereabout. Furthermore, with a lesser thickness long arm 102 will present a degree of elastic flexibility that will permit, to some limited degree, a selective widening and narrowing of gap 106 (i.e., by pulling long arm 102 away from stub arm 104 and/or pushing it towards stub arm 104).
By way of other relative dimensions or considerations relating thereto, stub arm 104 need only be of minimal length as compared to long arm 102. It will be appreciated that this will be helpful in terms of permitting a reasonable degree of flexibility for long arm 102 as just described.
While reference has been made hereinabove primarily to an application in which plastic shopping bag loop handles may be introduced through gap 106 so as to be looped about lower portion 108, there are numerous conceivable uses for a carrier 100 as broadly contemplated herein. For instance, carrier 100 could be used to gather up loops of wire or other elongated material to better consolidate or unify such material. Other ways in which loose or disparate items could be consolidated or unified by an arrangement such as carrier 100 include, but of course are by no means limited to, the use of carrier 100 as:
The uses for an item such as carrier 100 are, in general, quite varied and numerous and merely serve to demonstrate the extremely wide versatility of a medium such as carrier 100.
Carrier 100 could alternatively be formed from metal; even here, relative dimensions such as those discussed hereinabove should still preferably ensure that long arm 102 has a degree of elastic flexibility as discussed further above.
If not otherwise stated herein, it is to be assumed that all patents, patent applications, patent publications and other publications (including web-based publications) mentioned and cited herein are hereby fully incorporated by reference herein as if set forth in their entirety herein.
Although illustrative embodiments of the present invention have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.
This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/804,891, filed on Jun. 15, 2006, and entitled, respectively, “Improved One-Piece Carrier”, the contents of which are hereby fully incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60804891 | Jun 2006 | US |
