The Mercado from Quirky

The Mercado from Quirky

This is a pretty neat bag. If you’ve ever suffered from squashed fruit/vegies when shopping at the local farmers market, this might be your next dream purchase. Come meet the Mercado, one of the smartest designed totes we’ve seen for the fresh food…

We found this little gem over at Summer Tomato where founder Darya Pino put out a challenge to her readers to come up with a market bag design that saves produce from getting squashed when rolling round in a free for all styled tote. Some of her notes about the bag are below:

“A large compartment on the inner half of the bag holds your bigger, sturdier produce like kale, onions and cauliflower. The outer half of the bag is composed of two smaller pockets made from a soft nylon mesh, which is held open and rigid by a wire frame. This prevents the sides of the bag from collapsing in and bruising softer items.

In addition there are several small pockets lining the inside of the nylon compartments that are ideal for cradling your most delicate items like peaches, pears and tomatoes. The bag has a wide, adjustable strap and two deep side pockets that are ideal for your wallet, keys and shopping list. The outer parts of the bag are made from a thick, durable canvas that is attractive and comfortable.”

Overall it’s pretty impressive from a carry point of view. The main challenge of protecting your produce has been solved, the always regular challenges of any bag design of access vs storage has also been resolved quite well. Really loving the fron pocket for the wallet.

Head over to Summer Tomato for more – there’s even a little clip where Darya is explaining it in more detail.