Two categories for 1 product, no subcategories

I'm helping out a friend with his install of Zen Cart. He's a florist, and needs to set up Zen Cart categories in a certain way. So far, I've searched archives and messed around with hacks, but nothing seems to do it properly.

There are items that are only available for local delivery, and there are items that are available both locally and nationally.

There are categories for each product:
Roses
Gourmet Baskets
Plants
Planters
Blooming Plants

Additionally, they label each product with a "special occasion." One item can have multiple occasions:
Anniversary
Everyday
Baby Greeting
Birthday
Get Well
Congratulations
Love and Romance
Sympathy
Corporate Gifts

They want the side column to lay out this way: A list of Categories in one box and a list of Occasions in another box. These are items available nationally AND locally. Then they want a list of categories and occasions that are only available LOCALLY, each in two additional boxes.

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how this can all fit into the ZC database correctly. I'm sure it will take some template tweaking, but I'd like to find the least messy solution possible.

Thanks!

Use the Product types. Use the Product General for your national and local and clone the type for the local only.

Kim:

Use the Product types. Use the Product General for your national and local and clone the type for the local only.

Cool. I messed around with product types but that was before they told me about the national/local stuff. I'll give it a shot!

As far as I can tell, Product Types are only applicable to Categories, not Catalog Items. Is this true?

bump :) Thanks!