According to one embodiment, a bagging device includes a commodity placing unit having an inclined surface and on which a commodity is placed, an openable and closable door provided at the lowermost portion of the inclined surface, determining the position of the commodity placed on the commodity placing unit in a closed state, and allowing the placed commodity to slide outward along the inclined surface in an open state, and a storage mechanism for dropping the slid commodity into a storage body set at a sliding movement destination of the commodity.

A bag opening apparatus includes one or more processors; a motor assembly; one or more gearing assemblies; one or more shaft assemblies; one or more gripping assemblies; and one or more bag sensor assemblies. The one or more bag sensor assemblies detect a leading edge of the bag and communicates a signal or command to one or more processors. The bag opening apparatus includes one or more memory devices and computer-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory devices. The computer-readable instructions are executable by the one or more processors to communicate with the motor assembly to activate the motor assembly, the motor assembly to rotate and cause movement of the one or more gearing assemblies, the one or more shaft assemblies and the one or more gripping assemblies.

A bagging station for filling paper-type bags is disclosed. Described is a bagging station that includes a base and a center piece. The center piece has a cavity for storing a stack of paper or paper-type bags. The center piece rests on top of the base. The base is used to support one or more open paper bags while the paper bags are being filled. The base can include a carousel that rotates, where the center piece sets on the carousel. The center piece has a bag storage cavity for storing a stack of paper bags. The center piece also includes one or more paper bag upper edge holders, where each paper bag upper edge holder grasps the upper edge of an open paper bag in order to hold the bag open and in place while items are placed in the paper bag.

This disclosure describes, in part, systems for tracking the removal of shopping bags or other items from a dispenser. Folded shopping bags are stacked in a holder so that a front shopping bag can be removed by pulling it along an axis that is parallel to the length and/or width dimension of the shopping bag. A motion sensor is positioned to sense movement of the front shopping bag as it is removed. Control logic monitors and/or analyzes data or other signals from the motion sensor and determines whether movement of at least a threshold distance has occurred. If movement of at least the threshold distance has occurred, the control logic concludes that a shopping bag has been removed and generates a corresponding event notice. Other system components may respond to the event notice by applying a charge for the removed shopping bag or by performing other actions.

Bagging systems having rotation mechanisms are disclosed. According to an aspect, a bagging system includes a base that defines an area for placement of a shopping bag. The bagging system also includes a bag support attached to the base and positioned to support the shopping bag in the defined area. Further, the bagging system includes a rotation mechanism that rotatably attaches the bag support to the base with an axis of rotation that is vertically aligned with the bag support.

An example item carousel system is described. The system includes a terminal including a processor and a scanner. The system includes a carousel rotatably mounted to the terminal, the carousel including two or more bagging sections configured to receive bags. The system includes a motorized actuator configured to actuate rotation of the carousel relative to the terminal. The terminal is configured to read data from a machine readable identifier associated with an item using the scanner, and retrieve, using a retrieval module, item characteristics associated with the item from an item database. The terminal is configured to identify one bagging section of the two or more bagging sections of the carousel capable of receiving the item with the item characteristics, and mechanically rotate the carousel relative to the terminal with the motorized actuator such that the identified one bagging section is oriented toward a bagging area of the terminal.

A dispenser is disclosed for dispensing plastic bags from bag rolls. The dispenser includes a base frame and an arm pivotally connected to the base frame. A roll stop is attached to the arm to be inserted in the core of the bag roll when one is nested on the frame. The roll stop includes an internal spring which applies a braking force to the interior of the core of the bag roll to prevent the bag roll from spinning.

Described is a produce bag dispenser with a bag opening device. The bag opening device helps a customer in a retail store to open a produce bag as the produce bag is being removed from the produce bag dispenser. The bag opening device includes a sleeve and a friction plate with a frictional element. The sleeve attaches the bag opening device to the produce bag dispenser. The friction plate, with a frictional element such as rubber or other sticky or gritty material on it, is positioned below the bag separator of the produce bag dispenser. As the customer separates one bag from the roll of produce bags with the bag separator, they slide the bag along the frictional element of the friction plate, which opens the bag for the customer as the bag is separated from the roll of produce bags.

A bagging system includes a bagging mechanism, a switching unit, and a controller. The bagging mechanism is configured to perform bagging to put an item placed in a bagging space into a bag. The switching unit is configured to switch at least one of performing or not performing of the bagging or a type of the bag adopted for the bagging. The controller is configured to control the switching unit.

A bagging station, comprises a base; a carousel that rotates relative to the base, the carousel including a plurality of bag holding elements; an indicator at each bag holding element that provides a status regarding a bag hanging from the bag holding element; and a bag selection system that controls the indicators to identify bags for allocating items according to a predetermined criteria about at least one of the bag or the items.