Bag dispenser for facilitating bag opening

A plastic produce bag dispenser for facilitating a consumer to open a plastic produce bag, the dispenser comprising:

• a frame including a spindle configured to hold and permit dispensing of a roll of plastic produce bags, each of the plastic produce bags in the roll including an upwardly facing sidewall, a downwardly facing sidewall, an openable mouth proximate a first end of the plastic produce bag and a closed second end, adjacent plastic produce bags in the roll being separable from each other along a line of weakness;
• a bag separator coupled to the frame configured to permit separation of a leading plastic produce bag from an adjacent plastic produce bag along the line of weakness, the bag separator comprising a forwardly facing surface and a backwardly facing surface;
• the forwardly facing surface of the bag separator including a forwardly facing bag opening facilitator including a forwardly facing frictional element having a coefficient of friction relative to surfaces of the upwardly facing and downwardly facing sidewalls of the leading plastic produce bag that is higher than a coefficient of friction of portions of the bag separator adjacent the forwardly facing bag opening facilitator;
• wherein the frame supports the roll of the plastic produce bags such that the downwardly facing sidewall of the leading plastic produce bag overlays the forwardly facing frictional element of the forwardly facing bag opening facilitator, and wherein the forwardly facing frictional element of the forwardly facing bag opening facilitator is configured to retain in place a portion of the downwardly facing sidewall of the leading plastic produce bag proximate the openable mouth when in contact with the portion of the downwardly facing sidewall of the leading plastic produce bag proximate the openable mouth while permitting a portion of the upwardly facing sidewall of the leading plastic produce bag proximate the openable mouth to move relative to the retained in place portion of the downwardly facing sidewall of the leading plastic produce bag to open the mouth of the leading plastic produce bag in response to a force applied by a consumer to the portion of the upwardly facing sidewall of the leading plastic produce bag proximate the openable mouth.