Patent ID: 7992879

Claim:
A bagging system for sorting groceries by categories within a conventional grocery cart, the system comprising: a plurality of bags, each bag comprising: a front panel, a rear panel, two side panels, and a bottom panel, wherein the side and bottom panels include pleats configured for folding the bag into a flattened state, wherein each one of the plurality of bags has a cross-sectional area in a plane parallel to the bottom panel of the bag and in an open state that is either greater or less than the cross-sectional area of each of the others of the plurality of bags, and the bags are configured to be folded together in the flattened state to form a compact package, wherein the plurality of bags includes: a first bag comprising one or more partitions in an interior volume of the bag for holding items associated with a first category of groceries including containers, a second bag comprising an interior volume that is insulated for carrying items associated with a second category of groceries including cold items or warm items, a third bag comprising an interior volume that is water-resistant for carrying items associated with a third category of groceries including produce, and a fourth bag configured for carrying items associated with a fourth category of groceries including paper and dry goods, and wherein the different cross-sectional areas of the first, second, third and fourth bags are selected and sized so that the four bags can be adjacently positioned in the open state in a generally two-by-two, side-by-side arrangement, to substantially fill an interior volume of the interior basket compartment of the conventional grocery cart and so that interior volumes of the first, second, third and fourth bags are fully accessible from above the cart, whereby the first, second, third and fourth bags as positioned in the open state in the conventional grocery cart enable groceries of the first, second, third and fourth categories each to be segregated within substantially fixed portions of the interior volume of the interior basket compartment of the cart.