SOFT AND HARD FOOD SLIDABLE DIVIDER FOR CONVENTIONAL SHOPPING CARTS

SEPARATEUR DE NOURRITURE DURE ET MOLLE A GLISSIERE POUR LES PANIERS A PROVISIONS CONVENTIONNELS

Description

CA 02209043 1997-07-22
Back~round of ~he ~nven~ion
The process of shopping in a fruit market or a supermarket involves the selection of fruit or food
items and placing them inside a shopping cart, contin~lin~ to move forward, selecting another item
and again placing it inside the cart. O~en a shopper selects a hard textured food or item such as a
bag of potatoes a~er having collected a soft item such as a pound of tomatoes, peaches, cookies or
a loaf of sliced bread. It is often difficult for the shopper to remove the harder item to place it under
the soft item. .Al.co more than often when a shopper sees a slice of bread pressed and ruined
(squished), she or he brin~s the item back to the fruit counter to chan~e it for the " ~ood" items
This results in the store accepting the loss, and subsequently discarding the unusable item. The
consequence is frustration of the customers and a loss of inventory for the supermarket or the
fruit market.
Summa~ of ~nvention
The present invention pertains to solving the above-mentioned problem. The product hereinafter
called Shopping Cart Slid~hle Divider (See Top rew And Side rew Diagrams) has been
invented to make accessible the totality of the interior of the shopping cart while allowing the
consumer to divide the space to his or her favour (upon necessity).

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Due to its unique sliding feature, upon placing a solid item such as a tin can or a water-
melon, he /she will be able to adjust the divider to the extent of his /her needed space.
The present invention ( Fig. 6), consists of a flat plate or mesh ( network) made either of hard
non-brittle synthetic material or steel similar to the quality of network used to construct the
walls of the conventional shopping carts (Fig. 1 ). Two flat stripes of steel or plastic (Fig. 2 )
which have been bent at the right angle, will be attached to the dividing plate. These two metal
stripes help anchor the plate in place, avoiding unnecessary movements. These stripes also serve
to connect the plate to two slides (Fig 3). These slides contain ball bearings that ensure a
smooth sliding movement. Each slide consists of two long flat stripes of metal with their
longitudinal sides turned up at right angle by approximately 2 millimetres, allowing one to move
inside the other one having friction with six small ball bearings place in between the two pieces
each approximately 2-3 millimetres in diameter. These ball bearings are held in line by a thin metal
or plastic stripe in between the two thicker metal stripes . Their lengths are equal, and
approximately 1/3 of the length of the cart. These slides are parallel to each other and are fixed
to the floor of the shopping cart parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cart by nuts and bolts.
(A more detailed detailed and precise description will follow in the formal Application for Patent).
The movement of the divider is limited to a front to back and back to the front motion (
Anterior -Posterior direction from the view of the shopper)(see Side V'ew).
When it is positioned far to the front of the shopping cart, the slidable divider, allows shopper to

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have the totality of the shopping cart in one space and when it moves futher to the middle,
cart, it divides the shopping cart into two sections which can be utilized to
separate the hard from the soft items.
The dividing plate or network is attached to the sliding rails via the two metal stripes.
In addition, a feature of the present invention is the possibility to bring the sliding motion to a stop
to prevent continuous slide to the middle of the cart when it is not necessary. This feature is in the
process of a further development . It is an option to have this latest feature that has just been
described.
At least two embodiments are contemplated:
A)ln the preferred emhodi~ , a mesh (n~vu, I.) made of metal or strong plastic is used to divide
the long axis of the cart into two front and back sections, with a small rod held perpell ~;cu1~r to
thefloor of the cart and affaehed to the dividing plate. Any time the shopper wishes to move the
divider he/she will pull up the rod, move the plate and release the rod which willfall into the
network of the floor of cart and stops the divider from moving back or forth (see f g. 6)
The area of the four cornered (not exactly square) plate or network is roughly the same and slightly
smaller than the area of the a vertical cross section of a shopping cart that divides it into two
unequal front and back sections of the cart. The posterior section is of greater volume than the
anterior section in a conventional shopping cart. (Shopping carts are made in this way in order to
make nesting and un-nesting possible). The shape ofthe dividing plate or network is the same as the
shape of the above mentioned cross section of shopping cart. Although its size and

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shape may not exceed the contours of the Front Wall of the shopping cart.
At the time of nesting the divider is simply pushed to the end (Front wall) of the shopping cart so
that nesting and un-nesting will be easily done.
B) The alternative embo~i~.. ent of the slidable divider is one with a simpler stop h. ech(mi~ A
swelling of the rail (which could be made using a ball bearing), along the rail which will help
impede the wheel movement at a few (2-3) different positions.
The improved sliding merh~ri~ms and stopping merh~riC~ are in the process of further
perfection. All the different shapes and materials used to construct the Slidable Divider are
within the domain of this invention which are being developed presently. A total of 8 pages of
diagrams are enclosed to this document.

Representative Drawing