The invention is directed to the mass merchandising of packaged food products, and particularly to products such as ice cream and yogurt, for example, that are typically displayed in refrigerated display cases.
Ice cream and yogurt frequently are marketed in round containers, provided with a removable top. Ice cream containers quite typically are tapered, with the larger diameter at the top. The containers may be provided in several sizes, such as pints, quarts, etc. Yogurt also is frequently packaged in round, tapered containers, with the larger diameter sometimes being at the bottom and sometimes at the top.
A great deal of store manpower is expended in loading the display cases, in an effort to provide an orderly and neat-appearing display of the merchandise. Additionally, merchandise such as ice cream and yogurt is perishable, and the stores try to be careful when restocking to place the new merchandise at the back of the display. This frequently is difficult and time consuming because of limited space in the display cabinets, with closely spaced overhead shelving restricting access to backs of the displays.
Notwithstanding the best intentions of the store keepers, their efforts to maintain a neat and orderly display frequently are frustrated by customer interactions. For example, a customer may remove an item from one area of the display, change his or her mind and replace it in a disorderly manner and/or in a wrong location in the display. Inasmuch as disorderly displays and misplaced merchandise tends to result in lower sales of the product, a great deal of time and effort of store personnel is devoted to the process of reorganizing and restocking products such as ice cream and yogurt.
The present invention is directed to a novel form of merchandising tray for the display of products, such as ice cream and yogurt, in neat, individual columns over the full depth of the available shelving, which assures that the merchandise will be maintained in a neat and orderly fashion, easily identified by the consumer and easily removable by the consumer without disturbing the selected display arrangement, or neighboring displays. To advantage, the tray is of molded plastic construction, formed of two interengaging L-shaped tray sections, which are adjustable in width over a selected range of widths. The trays thus can be adjusted to the narrowest width suitable to accommodate the specific product containers, thereby maximizing the space available to the store operator to display a full variety of the merchandise. A convenient, built-in sizing chart simplifies and expedites the appropriate adjustments.
In accordance with one advantageous feature of the invention, the two L-shaped tray sections include vertical side wall portions integrally joined with horizontal bottom wall portions. The bottom wall portions include interlocking fingers projecting laterally at spaced locations along the length of the bottom wall portion, with the interlocking fingers with the one tray section fitting closely in spaces between the interlocking fingers of the opposite section. The preferred arrangement is such that, in any width-adjusted position of the tray sections, the bottom structure is substantially continuous. Particularly for products such as ice cream and yogurt, for example, there sometimes can be leakage of the product from its container. The tray of the present invention enables such leakage to be substantially confined within the tray itself, avoiding drippage onto the supporting shelf or, in the case of wire rack shelving, drippage down to lower areas of the display to create an unsightly and unsanitary mess. With the tray of the invention, whenever a leakage occurs, the entire tray may be quickly and easily removed from the display, cleaned as necessary, and replaced into the display.
In an advantageous form of the new merchandise tray, the side wall portions extend to a height well above the height of a single product container, facilitating the display of the product on a double-stacked arrangement for optimum density of product items in the display. Inasmuch as the opposed side walls of the tray are width-adjusted to closely fit the size of the product containers, the double-stacked display remains stable during removal of individual product items from the front of the display by customers.
It is contemplated that, in a typical store display utilizing the merchandising tray of the invention, multiple trays will be closely packed in a side-by-side arrangement along the length of the display area, such that the product can be displayed on a high density basis for maximum product exposure in a given shelf area. To facilitate such a high density display, the merchandising tray of the invention includes a hand-engageable opening at the front of one of the side wall portions of the tray. The hand-engageable opening preferably is provided in only one side wall portion of the tray, and the opposite side wall portion is recessed in the same general area in which the hand opening is provided in the opposite side. Accordingly, when a series of trays are densely packed on a side-by-side basis, the recess provided in one front wall portion of one tray allows for the hand-engageable opening of an immediately adjacent tray to be grasped without interference. This arrangement is such that, in a densely packed group of trays, any one tray can be engaged and drawn forwardly out of the display for restocking, reorganizing, cleaning or the like. This is a particularly valuable practical feature, in that withdrawing the entire tray from a display greatly facilitates the operations involved in restocking and/or reorganizing the display. These operations can be conveniently performed even though the display shelving leaves minimal vertical clearance above the displayed product items.
Complete withdrawal of the merchandising tray from a display arrangement greatly facilitates back loading of the tray, such that the oldest product remains up in front and the newest containers are placed at the back. All store owners desire to do this, of course, but frequently the nature of the display makes it difficult or inconvenient to do so with consistency. With the tray fully removed from the display area or at least pulled forwardly, restocking in the desired manner is easily accomplished. Moreover, as an advantageous feature, the side walls of the tray are provided with hand-engageable openings along the top edges thereof which make it easy for store personnel to lift and carry a fully or partially loaded tray to simplify removal from and replacement in the display cabinet.
The merchandising tray of the invention advantageously incorporates a simple and inexpensive pull strip feature, which enables product from the back portions of the tray to be advanced, with product advantageously fronted at the fore of the display. Pull strip arrangements per se are well known. However, the particular arrangement provided in the merchandising tray of the invention is specifically advantageous for incorporation in the tray of the invention.
A typically preferred embodiment of the invention incorporates break-away sections at the back of the tray, such that the front-to-back length of the tray may be shortened, if necessary, to accommodate narrower shelving. Such break-away sections, in themselves known, are optimized for the shelf of the invention by having the break-away lines of weakness extend generally centrally through the interlocking fingers located in the area of the brake-away. Thus, when a section is broken away at the back of the tray, at least a portion of the backmost interlocking finger remains to maintain the integrity and appearance of the bottom structure at the back of the tray.
Especially in ice cream and yogurt displays, frequently the only identification of the product is that which is applied to the body of the container. When containers at the front of a display become misplaced, or rotated at an inconvenient angle, it is sometimes difficult for a customer to locate a particular desired flavor. In the merchandising tray of the invention, the bottom end portion advantageously is provided at the front edge with an upwardly opening slot of a size and configuration to slidingly receive a label-holding extrusion which can contain identification, pricing and other information relating to the product located behind, in the tray. Advantageously, the label-holding extrusion is supported in an upright orientation and serves additionally as a front stop for merchandise being pushed forward by actuation of the pull strip feature discussed above.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment, and to the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to the drawing, the reference numeral 30 designates generally a merchandising tray according to the invention comprised of first and second tray sections 31, 32, each comprised of a vertical side wall 33 or 34 and a horizontal bottom wall 35 or 36. The two tray sections 31, 32 advantageously are of molded plastic construction, advantageously formed of a mixture of styrene and K-resin providing desirable characteristics of hardness, gloss, low friction and durability.
The trays of the invention may come in a variety of sizes to suit product requirements. In a typical and non-limiting example, the tray may have an overall length of around 22 inches, a height of around 6.5 inches, and a width which is adjustable in a range of around 2.7 to 3.3 inches. It is contemplated that the trays will be provided in several basic lengths-widths combinations, in each case having a range of width adjustment. In addition, the trays advantageously will provided with break-away sections at the back end, to be described, which will accommodate shortening of the trays to fit narrower shelves.
In each of the tray sections, the side walls and bottom walls are integrally molded and relatively rigid. Each of the bottom walls 31 advantageously comprises a generally continuous panel 37, 38 and a plurality of interlocking fingers 39, 40 projecting laterally outward from inner edges 41, 42 of the respective bottom panels 37, 38.
Pursuant to the invention, the spaces 43, 44 between adjacent interlocking fingers 39, 40 correspond in width to the width of the fingers of the opposite tray sections. That is, the spaces 43 correspond to the width of the fingers 44 and the spaces 44 correspond in width to the width of the fingers 39. As is evident particularly in
As shown in
The narrower fingers 39, serving a less important structural function, can be somewhat shorter than the wider fingers 40. In all cases, however, the narrower fingers 39 are of sufficient length to extend across the entire gap 50 formed between the panel side edges 41, 42 when the tray is adjusted to its maximum width configuration, as shown in
In the merchandising tray of the invention, a simple and effective interlocking detent arrangement is provided for temporarily locking the two tray sections 31, 32 in any of a range of adjusted positions. To this end, the tray section 32 is provided with a pair of widely spaced apart detent fingers 50 (see
When the tray is assembled, the detent lugs 51 are aligned with a selected pair of openings 54 at each location to secure the tray in a desired adjusted width configuration. In the illustrated embodiment, there are six pairs of detent openings to provide six adjusted configurations of the tray. As shown particularly in
In the tray of the invention, the side walls 33, 34 of the tray sections are provided with side wall access openings 56, 57 opposite the front and back detent positions respectively. These access openings enable a person to extend his or her thumbs through the side walls of the tray sections enabling the tray sections to be gripped and the pressure pads 52 to be depressed, in order to make a width adjustment of the tray. Typically, the tray will be adjusted in width first at one end and then at the other. Calibration numbers, provided adjacent to the detent openings 54, simplify making corresponding adjustments at both ends of the tray.
In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, a convenient sizing chart is provided on the exterior of the tray to facilitate adjustment of the tray to a proper width for the product to be displayed. As shown in
With reference to
If the size of the product container falls outside the limits of the sizing chart, the store employee knows immediately that a larger or smaller tray will be required.
For the display of ice cream and yogurt products, in particular, but other products as well, the store keeper often desires to present the product in a double-stacked arrangement, as reflected in
For refrigerated displays, because the tray side walls are relatively long and high, it is desirable to provide the side walls with numerous through openings 59, 60 to accommodate the lateral flow of refrigerated air into and out of the installed trays.
In a typical in-store display utilizing trays of the invention, the trays will not only be adjusted to closely fit the size of the product containers 58, but also will be arranged in tight, side-by-side arrangement, as shown in
In addition to the front, hand-engageable opening 61, each tray is provided at a mid-point in each of the side walls 33, 34 with a horizontally elongated, hand-engageable opening 63, 64 near the upper edges of the side walls. These openings 63 are positioned to enable a store person to pick up and carry an entire tray, loaded with product, as part of a removal or replacement operation. In this respect, it is contemplated that, for front-loaded displays, the store personnel will in many cases simply remove an entire tray from the display, clean it if necessary, and reload with new merchandise, after moving the existing product inventory on the tray to forward positions. In this respect, with front-loaded displays, particularly where the vertical clearance between shelves is minimal, it can be very difficult to restock a particular product column, by placing new product at the back of the display. With the new tray of the invention, it is a simple matter to withdraw the entire tray from the display cabinet, service and reload it as necessary and replace it within the cabinet. During such reloading, complete access is of course available to the back of the tray, so that proper first-in-first-out loading of the tray can be easily accomplished.
Because commercial shelving comes in several different shelf widths, the merchandising tray of the invention incorporates break-away sections at the back that can be removed, when necessary or appropriate, for installation on narrow shelving. For this purpose, the opposite side walls are provided with molded-in deep vertical grooves 64, 65 forming break-away side wall sections 66, 67. For the tray section 31, the vertical grooves 64, 65 are aligned with similar bottom grooves 68, 69 extending along the center lines of the interlocking fingers 39a, 39badjacent the back of the tray (see
In this respect, it will be noted (
To particular advantage, the merchandising tray of the invention incorporates a highly simplified and economical form of pull strip and pusher paddle, whereby the product containers 58 can be easily brought forward and maintained with a fronted presentation for increased sales appeal. In the tray assembly of the present invention, a pusher paddle 72 is provided, which is of a width suitable to be closely received between the side walls 33, 34 when the tray sections are adjusted to their narrowest configuration. The paddle, shown in
A pull strip 77, is formed of a flat, thin, flexible length of plastic material. In an illustrative, but non-limiting example, the pull strip may be about 1.75 inches in height, about 0.022 inch in thickness and about 22 inches in length. The plastic material, which preferably is transparent, may be a material such as polypropylene. At its back end, the pull strip 77 is provided with outwardly inclined edge portions 78 which, together with outwardly projecting arms 79 at the back end extremity of the strip, define vertically opening notches 80 along the top and bottom edges. To advantage, the pull strip may be provided over most or all of its length, and at least the back portion thereof with a longitudinal crease line 81 tending to impart a shallow V-shaped cross section to the pull strip to impart a degree of longitudinal rigidity.
As shown in
An installed and retracted position of the paddle and pull strip arrangement is illustrated in
As will be appreciated, as one or more break-away sections are removed from the tray assembly, the pull strip will tend to project forwardly of its desired position in the display. Accordingly, the pull strip is provided with creases 88 marking where the front of the pull strip may be cut or broken to reduce its length to correspond to the reduced length of the tray itself. Additional finger. holes 86aand 86b are also provided for use when the pull strip is shortened.
In a preferred form of the invention, the two tray sections 31, 32 are formed at their front end extremities (see
Some store displays of frozen goods, such as ice cream and yogurt, are arranged to be accessed from within the cooler, where the cooler provides access to the back ends of the trays. For such applications, it is advantageous to mount an additional label holder 90(a) on the back surface of each of the paddle panels 73 (
In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the tray section 32 is provided, at the forward lower extremity of its side wall 34, with opposed L-shaped flanges 95 (
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the materials utilized for loading the tray sections 31, 32 are chosen to provide adequate strength, a relatively high gloss surface, low friction characteristics and resistance to ultraviolet light. A mixture of KRO3 K-Resin (a styrene-butadiene copolymer) and EA3200 crystal styrene, both available from Chevron Phillips Chemical Company comprise the principal components of the composition, to which are added minor amounts of an ultraviolet resistance material and a Teflon surface modifier. In one advantageous composition, the crystal styrene and K-Resin are provided in approximately equal amounts, in another, the K-Resin component predominates over the crystal styrene in an approximate three to one ratio. In still another advantageous composition, the basic material is MA5350 high gloss, high rigidity, high impact styrene, also available from Chevron Phillips Chemical Company. Minor amounts of anti-ultraviolet and Teflon surface modifier are added. It is understood that the foregoing examples are illustrative and non-limiting. The illustrative compositions provide a tray of attractive appearance, with a smooth, high gloss surface which is easily maintained and cleaned, the low friction characteristics are particularly desirable not only to enable the double-stacked product containers to be drawn forward with the pull strip and pusher arrangement, but also to facilitate individual removal and replacement of trays from a densely packed array thereof for individual reloading and servicing of the trays.
The merchandising tray of the invention provides unique and very significant advantage to the store keeper. By presenting product containers in neat, closely confined columns, double-stacked if appropriate, it is feasible to achieve greater density of product display, in addition to enabling an increased variety of products displayed in a given shelf or cabinet area. The use of shelf dividers for confinement of product columns is of course well known. The present invention, however, enables the product to be displayed in easily removable trays. The store keeper is thus able to dramatically reduce labor costs associated with facing the product at the front of the displays and with rear loading of the product for proper rotation.
The adjustable tray feature enables the tray to closely fit to and thus confine the product column so that optimum product density can be realized. In addition, the close confinement of the product enables double stacking to be utilized and efficiently maintained. The convenient sizing chart feature provided on the outside of the tray side wall, together with the use of correspondingly indexed detent positions for setting the tray width, enables store personnel to quickly and easily set any tray to an optimum width for the product to be displayed therein. This assures the store operator of a maximum density of product in the display and also helps to keep the product containers displayed in a neat and orderly fashion.
It has been observed that customers themselves will make use of the pull strip and pusher feature to bring product to the front of the display for easy retrieval. Thus, after a few product containers are removed from the display by earlier customers, a subsequent customer often finds it more convenient to pull the product column forward than to reach back into the tray for a recessed container. Where this occurs, the store personnel are freed for other duties.
Use of the trays of the invention provides for a much neater and more attractive display of products such as ice cream and yogurt in particular. Typical displays of such products easily become disorderly as individual containers are removed, others are dislodged, tipped over, etc. In many cases, a customer changing his or her mind returns a container to the wrong location, making it difficult for other customers to locate and select desired product flavors, for example. With the tray of the present invention, particular flavors are confined in a particular tray, which easily maintains the inventory in a neat and orderly manner which stimulates sales. Moreover, since the product identification is clearly provided at the front of the tray, in the front-mounted label holder, the customer is much less likely to replace a container in the wrong location.
The ability to remove and replace individual trays not only enables highly efficient, low cost servicing of the display, but also enables the display to be easily and efficiently reorganized as appropriate, with new and different products, simply by bodily removing one tray and its contents and substituting a freshly loaded tray with another product.
The trays are formed of a glossy and lubricious and sturdy material, which facilitates the sliding forward of the product containers using the pull strip element, and also facilitates removal and replacement of the trays themselves. Although the tray of the invention is not intended exclusively for refrigerated displays, it is highly suitable for such utilization. The materials are suitable for low temperature applications, and the trays themselves are formed with large ventilation openings in their side walls to accommodate the flow of refrigerated air to the product.
An advantageous feature of the tray structure is a provision for width-adjustability while maintaining a substantially continuous bottom structure. Accordingly, should there be any leakage of product from their containers, it can be effectively contained within the trays, which can be easily cleaned on an individual basis with much less time and effort than if the leakage were to flow onto underlying shelves or, in the case of wire shelving, onto products being displayed at lower levels. Moreover, the materials of which the trays are molded are smooth, glossy and non-porous, which both inhibits the mold and bacteria growth and also facilitates cleaning when necessary.
Use of the merchandising trays of the invention also helps the store keeper to identify items which are out of stock. Thus, when the items are maintained in an orderly confinement within the tray, an empty tray readily signifies that the product is out of stock. In conventional displays, there may be one or more misplaced items, or items remaining at the back of the display, that make it difficult to reliably ascertain whether a given item is out of stock. To the extent that the restocking task becomes difficult or inconvenient to store personnel, it sometimes does not get performed on a timely basis.
It should be understood, of course, that the specific forms of the invention herein illustrated and described are intended to be representative only, as certain changes may be made therein without departing from the clear teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, reference should be made to the following appended claims in determining the full scope of the invention.
This application is related to and claims the priority of provisional applications Ser. No. 60/722,228, filed Sept. 30, 2005.
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