SHOPPING BAG
Walter H. Deubner ran a small grocery store in St. Paul, Minnesota, and he was looking for a way to give his business a boost.
By careful observation, he noticed that his customers purchases were limited by what they could conveniently carry. So he set about devising a way to help them buy more purchases at one time. It took him four years to develop the right solution: a prefabricated package, inexpensive, easy to use-and strong enough to carry up to seventy-five pounds worth of groceries.
The package consisted of a paper bag with cord running through it for strength. Deubner named his new product after himself, calling it the "Deubner Shopping Bag," and sold it for five cents. Deubner patented his product and within three years, by 1915, was selling over a million shopping bags a year.
