Attributes (well, sort of...)

I hate to use the term attribute here, because I don't think I'm talking about attributes as they are known in ZC.

Let me give a scenario, then I'll ask my question.

I stock, for example, ribbons that go with specific products. When I get in a product grouping, I create a sub-category for that grouping, and the ribbon is included there - the ribbon's master category.

But, I'd like to be able to "display all ribbons" in the store, regardless of what sub-category they are in. I'm thinking of doing this with product links to a sub-category called "Ribbons". But this will take a lot of manual effort, so I thought I'd see if there is a better way. I'm wondering if I can assign an attribute to the product that tells me what type of product it is - ribbon, flower, etc. Then do a search based on attribute? Not all products will have an attribute like this - there are only about five things that are scattered throughout the store that I would also like to pull into together.

Does this make sense? Assuming it does, how would you suggest I do this?

I wonder if you use all the fields in the product table. For instance, do you use the manufacturer field? Many shops do not. If you don't then perhaps you could use manufacturer to discriminate between these products.

You could have a manufacturer 'ribbons'. Changing the fact that is is displayed as 'manufacturer' is fairly straight forward.

You could also do a similar work around with the 'model number' using ribbon01, ribbon02, etc.

Just a thoght.....