Montreal startup aims to make shopping easier with new grocery bag

With Montreal looking to ban plastic bags as of 2018, Wagonbags, a local startup, is hoping to be ahead of the game.

Wagaonbags is the brainchild of Yaakov and Esther Frankforter and is a modern uptake of the quintessential grocery bag.

READ MORE: Montreal moves to ban plastic bags by 2018

Esther Frankforter said she’d had enough of regular shopping bags.

“I was really fed up of using all the bags and the plastic bags and schlepping the bags and making sure I have the bags,” she said.

So she took matters into her own hands.

“I’m going to attach four bags together myself, figure it out and make it myself,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I'm going to attach four bags together myself, figure it out and make it myself," she said.

The original model received a lot of attention, prompting the Frankforters to start a business.

“We came up with the colours and the design and we actually produced it,” Yaakov Frankforter said, adding that the new model is very different from what his wife used for herself.

The Wagonbag is a compact set of four re-usable and washable grocery bags that can be rolled out into your shopping cart as the cashier rings up your items.

READ MORE: Canadian plastics industry, Coderre meet to discuss Montreal bag ban

The bags are joined together with velcro and hang in the cart thanks to removable rods, making access quick and easy.

According to the Frankforters, Wagonsbags save time at check-out by making sorting easier.

Two of the bags are insulated to ensure hot foods stay warm and cold foods remain cold.

The bags are also quite sturdy.

“Each bag can carry up to 50 pounds,” Eshter Frankforter said. “Your entire grocery cart is in your bags.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Each bag can carry up to 50 pounds," Eshter Frankforter said. "Your entire grocery cart is in your bags."

The bags are detachable so that they can be easily carried to and from the car, once they are packed.

Wagonbags only launched a month ago, but so far so good, according to the Frankforters.