QUICK ACCESS POCKET FOR SHOPPING BAGS
A primary bag that can be used for holding the majority of purchased items includes an integral or attachable secondary container that may contain items related to the purchase. For use in the fast food industry, the secondary container is used to house finger food to allow a customer, easy, safe and undisruptive access to snack items that can be consumed on the way to his or her destination.
This patent application is a U.S. non-provisional application filed pursuant to Title 35, United States Code §100 et seq. and 37 C.F.R. Section 1.53(b) claiming priority under Title 35, United States Code §119(e) to United States Provisional Application for Patent having been assigned the Ser. No. of 60/767,354 and filed on Mar. 21, 2006, which application is herein incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is directed towards packaging products and, more specifically to a quick and easy access pocket, pouch, bag or other container that can be externally connected, adhered to or formed onto another container to facilitate access to the contents thereof.
You are either guilty or you're a victim—or you may even be both. What we are talking about is that sneaky, grubby, quick fingered culprit that was sent to the local fast food restaurant to pick-up everyone else's lunch, dinner or second-half, get-through-the-game fuel. Upon his or her return, the bag is opened up and the food is distributed. However, as is usually the case, come of the little bags or pockets of fries are fuller than other little bags or pockets of fries. Why is this so? And then, there are the orphan fries at the bottom of the big bag—where did they come from? What is the answer to this great intrigue? Are fast food restaurants which are striving for excellence in service in this highly competitive market breaching their own standards of impeccable service and being careless? Do they actually only fill some of the little bags halfway while stuffing the others to brim? I think not. You have seen them operate before. They use the fry scoop. The fry scoop insures the bags are full. No, fault does not fall upon the fast food restaurant employees. Fault is much closer to home than you think. A quick examination of the fast food fetcher will show all the evidence necessary. Salty fingers, glistening lips, a hint of fry breath and a satisfied smile—these are the signs you look for to identify the guilty party. But really, you can't blame the fry-on-the-sly guy (or gal) because, most likely, you have been there yourself. Driving down the road with a bag full of steamy hot fries or other delectable side order just sitting next to you in the passenger seat is a temptation that not even Mother Theresa herself could have pushed aside. They actually call to you in a voice much more alluring than Homer's sirens. They say, “just one, nobody will notice if you eat just one”. Then they follow up with a very logical point. “We are steamy hot right now, by the time you get home we will only be luke warm”. “Why should EVERYONE eat lukewarm fries? You were the one that had to leave the house or office, drive to the restaurant, order and buy the food! It only seems fare that you snatch one or two, or maybe two or three hot steamy fries from each bag”.
You turn up the radio, you try to concentrate on baseball or flowers, and you may even try to picture the excited looks of your children or buddies when they receive a full bag of fries. But nothing works. You finally cave-in to the temptation as you slowly move one hand off of the steering wheel and fumble for the top of the bag thinking to yourself, well, just one is okay. You find the bag but you can't seem to get the top open so you divert your eyes from the road just to provide a little assistance to your hand. Finally, the bag is open, you can feel the steam rise up and flow between your fingers as the car is filled with the aroma of hot fries. Your hand slowly dives into the bag as you are trying to focus on the road and keep the saliva from dribbling down you chin. You feel napkins, straws, sandwiches, apple pies, more napkins—panic begins to rush over you mind. What if they forgot the fries? You divert your eyes from the road yet again as you plunge your hand deeper into the bag. You grimace as your fingers slide into a bag of extremely hot and greasy fries but it does not slow you down. You tell yourself you are only taking one but you know very well that you are planning to pull out as many as you can—simply because your not willing to run the risk of pulling out a single, short, overcooked fry after going through all of this trouble. As you pull your hand back out of the bag, you once again divert your eyes from the road to get a glimpse of the marvelous spoil of your gallant efforts. Your fingers are throbbing from the grease burns but you don't care. You count the fries and immediate assess their quality as you slowly move your hand towards your mouth. You try to open wide too accommodate the entire handful, but there is too much, one of the fries slides down your left cheek leaving behind salty juicy evidence. You savor the flavor as you slowly chew on the fries, opening your mouth to breath cool air in to help cool the fire-hot fries. Finally, the molten morsel is fully chewed and you let it slide down the back of your throat and at this point, unless you have already sold your soul out, the remorse begins to overwhelm you. What have you done? You just ate someone else's fries and, more than that, you risked your life in doing so. You took unnecessary risks by diverting your eyes from the road—several times!. You begin to lecture yourself about how ashamed you are with yourself and then you stop abruptly as you realize that your hand has unconsciously returned to the bag. You, my friend, need help.
In actuality, the above-described story happens quite frequently. And as pointed out in the story, this activity can impose a threat on the safety of a driver and others. Anytime a driver diverts his attention from the road, regardless of the reason, the driver is assuming a risk. Furthermore, after handling the money to pay for the food, there is some level of a health and sanitary issue that arises as the driver puts his hand into the bag and touches various fries. Additionally, there is the issue of fairness. It is true that it is not fair to eat someone else's fries without their permission. However, it is equally true that the person that has to go after the fast food should reap some sort of an award. Thus, there is a need in the art for a solution to this dilemma. What is needed in the art is a solution that would provide a safe and sanitary way to reward a driver for fetching food for everyone else without unfairly treating the hungry anticipants. The present invention provides such a solution.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a solution to the above-described needs in the art by providing a two-compartment bag that can be used to offer a ride-along feature to fast-food restaurant customers (i.e., RIDE-ALONG-FRIES™). The two compartment bag includes a main compartment that is used to house the bulk of a customer's order, and a secondary compartment that is used to house a portion of finger food for the customer to consume on his or her way to their destination. The secondary compartment is affixed or integral to the bag and includes an exterior opening that facilitates easier access to the contents by the customer. Thus, finger foods can be placed into the interior of the secondary compartment and the customer will have easy, safe and sanitary access to the contents. In one embodiment of the invention, the secondary compartment is a pouch that is affixed to the external side of the main compartment or paper bag. In another embodiment, the secondary compartment is formed by placing a panel on the interior surface of the main compartment (or paper bag) thereby creating a pouch. In addition, an opening on the exterior of the main container is provided to gain access the pouch. In yet another embodiment, the main container is a beverage cup and the secondary container is affixed to the side of the beverage cup or to a lid for the beverage cup. In each of these embodiments as well as their equivalents, a customer is provided with a ride-along feature or service that allows the customer to gain safe and/or sanitary access to a finger food or other item without having to breach the seal or open the main container.
The present invention provides a multi-access container that can be used to provide safe and/or sanitary access to food items, as well as preserve the sanctity of someone else's fries. More particularly, in one embodiment of the invention, a paper bag used to storing purchased fast food items includes an exterior pocket, pouch or bag that can be used to hold french fries or other finger foods. Advantageously, this embodiment of the invention provides easy access to the finger food so that a driver, can easily consume the finger foods while driving without having to divert his or her eyes from the road to open the paper bag and without having to stick his or her hands into the paper bag potentially contaminating, disturbing or damaging the food items.
Now turning to the figures in which like references refer to like elements throughout the several views, various embodiments, features and aspects of the present invention are presented.
It will be appreciated that the secondary container may thus be an externally and fixedly attached item to the primary container, may be attachable and removable, or may be integrally formed in the primary container. In addition, the secondary container may also be constructed to be inside the primary container.
Advantageously, the various embodiments of the present invention can be utilized in providing a ride-along fries, or ride-along finger-food service. The various structures described above enable a finger food, such as french fries, tatortots, chicken-fingers, pies, etc., to be provided to a customer in a safe and sanitary manner. In addition, embodiments of the may also be used to hold condiments or other items such as salt, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and other similar sauces or spice packets. In addition, the container can be fabricated in such a manner that it includes a replaceable or removable lid, and as such, may contain dipping sauces. In addition, in a multi-extra container embodiment, one secondary container can be used for containing a food item, such as french fries, while the other secondary container holds a dipping sauce, such as ketchup.
When a customer places an order for fast food, the service provider can either ask the customer if he or she would like to purchase or upgrade the purchase to include the ride-along feature. Alternatively, this service or feature can be automatically provided to all customers or select customers. Regardless of the particular implementation, a bag formulated by one of the described structures, or equivalents thereof, is utilized to fill the customer's main order by placing such items into the main compartment, and then placing finger food items into the secondary compartment. The secondary compartment securely holds the finger food items but grants easy access to the finger foods. Thus, a driver of an automobile, or other participant, can easily access the finger food items without having to divert his or her eyes from the driving task. In addition, because the finger food items are stored in the secondary compartment external to the main compartment, the party partaking in the ride-along finger food items does not have to reach into the interior of the main compartment. Advantageously, this allows the main compartment to stay closed, and as such, the food items are more apt to remain warm. In addition, the partaking party does not contaminate, damage or disturb any food items located on the interior of the main compartment when reaching for the finger foods. Advantageously, the customer can partake in the morsels without inadvertently eating someone else's food item.
In various embodiments of the present invention, the material of the secondary container may require different characteristics. For instance, if the secondary container is primarily for housing food items, the material can include thermal characteristics to help keep the food warm. In addition, if the item to be placed in the container has a high amount of moisture, then the material may be non-porous or liquid proof.
It should be appreciated that although the present invention is described as utilizing a single secondary pocket or pouch, in actuality, multiple pockets or pouches may be provided. Thus, multiple types of finger foods can be provided or, the driver and a passenger may have their own dedicated ride-along pocket. In addition, one pocket may be used to house a finger food item, such as fries or chicken fingers, and another pocket may be used to contain a sauce, such as ketchup or honey mustard etc. In addition, a secondary pocket may be utilized to hold a napkin for the customer or other various condiments and items such as straws, napkins, sauce packets, plastic ware, receipts, etc.
It should be appreciated that although the main container is described as a paper bag in
Claims
1. An apparatus for containing items, the apparatus comprising:
- a main compartment that is operable to receive a first item;
- a secondary compartment that is smaller than the first compartment and is operable to receive a second item; and
- the secondary compartment being accessible external to the main compartment and providing easy access to the second item.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the main compartment is a paper bag.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the secondary compartment is integral to the paper bag.
4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the secondary compartment is attachable to the side of the paper bag.
5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the secondary compartment is a pocket fixedly attached to the side of the paper bag.
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the paper bag includes a front, a back, a left side and a right side with the front and the back having the same dimensions and the left side and right side having the same dimensions, the width of the front and back being larger than the width of the left side and right side, and the pocket being fixedly attached to the front or back.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the pocket is attached to the lower portion of the front or back of the paper bag.
8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the pocket is expandable.
9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the pocket is comprised of a heavier stock material than the paper bag.
10. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the pocket is fixedly attached by adhering one surface of the pocket to one surface of the paper bag.
11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the main compartment is a paper bag and the secondary compartment is formed by creating an opening in the side of the paper bag and affixing a panel to the interior surface of the paper bag over the opening, thereby creating a pocket.
12. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the secondary compartment is a pocket including an extension, and wherein the extension of the pocket can be folded with the top of the paper bag when closing the paper bag, thereby securing the pocket to the paper bag.
13. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the secondary compartment is a pocket including an extension, and wherein the extension of the pocket is adhered to a surface of the paper bag.
14. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the secondary compartment is constructed of a material having thermal characteristics.
15. A container including a main compartment and a secondary compartment, the container comprising:
- a first plurality of surfaces defining the interior of the main compartment, the main compartment including an opening providing access to the interior of the main compartment;
- a second plurality of surfaces defining the interior of the secondary compartment, the secondary compartment including an opening that is external to the interior of the main compartment and provides access to the interior of the secondary compartment.
16. The container of claim 15, wherein the main compartment is a paper bag and the secondary compartment is a paper pocket adhered to an exterior surface of the paper bag.
17. A method for providing safe access to a plurality of items that have been purchased for consumption, the method comprising:
- placing a first plurality of items into a main compartment of a container;
- placing a second plurality of items into a secondary compartment of the container; and
- closing the opening of the main compartment leaving access to the secondary compartment readily available without having to open the main container.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein prior to the step of placing the second plurality of items into the secondary compartment, a seller inquires of a purchaser whether the purchaser desires to receive the second plurality of items.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second plurality of items is finger food and the seller's inquiry is an indication that for an increased purchase price, the purchaser can obtain the finger food placed into the secondary opening.
20. The method of claim 18, wherein the finger food is french fries and the seller's inquiry includes asking the purchaser if the purchaser would like to purchase ride-along-fries.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 15, 2007
Publication Date: Sep 27, 2007
Inventor: Daniel M Frohwein (Orlando, FL)
Application Number: 11/686,954
International Classification: B65D 30/22 (20060101);