Title: Over-the-counter cart with hingedly attached plastic basket and retracting front gate

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Abstract: An over-the-counter cart utilizing separate rear and front baskets and having a wheeled metal frame. The front basket is made of plastic wherein the side panels, the bottom panel and the front panel, having an opening, are integrally molded of open lattice work construction. A metal unitary bar extends along the open perimeter of the plastic basket and along a portion of the underside of its bottom panel adjacent its rear edge. Separate metal hinge bars, on each side of the plastic basket, are attached to the unitary bar and extend along a portion of the underside of the plastic basket; the free ends of these bars are received within a hinge tube, mounted on the cart frame, to allow the basket's rotation from a horizontal position to a vertical position to allow nesting of the carts. A hingedly attached child seat and seat back panel are incorporated into the rear basket.

In order to accommodate a computer checkout scanner system, a front gate is hingedly attached to the plastic basket to close the opening in the front panel. Channels fitted with guides in the underside of the bottom panel allow the front gate to be lowered, upon opening, and then retracted to a position remote from the front panel to prevent obstructing the scanner. Consequently, goods can be removed easily and directly from the basket through the opening in the front panel and be passed over the scanner.