Patent ID: 8172239

Claim:
A collapsible shopping cart system comprising: a shopping cart including upper, lower and intermediate frames, each of the frames having a front, rear and sides, each frame having two front corners and two rear corners, the lower and intermediate frames each having a rigid screen; and four similarly configured upper posts including two front posts coupling the front corners of the upper and intermediate frames and two rear posts coupling the rear corners of the upper and intermediate frames, two similarly configured lower posts coupling the rear corners of the intermediate and lower frames, each of the posts having a midpoint with a hinge at the midpoint, each hinge dividing each post into an upper segment and a lower segment, each hinge adapted to be pivoted to a linear orientation wherein the segments of each post are axially aligned essentially perpendicular to the frames and the shopping cart is in an expanded orientation with the upper and intermediate frames defining a basket, each hinge adapted to be pivoted to a non-linear orientation wherein the segments of each post are essentially parallel with the frames and the shopping cart is in a contracted orientation.