Patent Application
20150047297
This invention relates to product packaging and product display, and more particularly to methods and devices for providing low cost product retainment during shipping and enhanced display characteristics at retailer.
Retailing or shopping as a concept extends at least as far back as ancient Greece, where the agora served as a marketplace for merchants to sell their goods. In ancient Rome a similar marketplace known as the forum existed. Throughout history fairs and markets have a long history that started when humans felt the desire to exchange goods and services where people would shop. Such markets are frequently weekly whilst fairs were typically less frequent. Subsequently, shops began to be permanently established when market traders stayed in one location and were traditionally specialized, e.g. a bakery, a butchery, a grocer, where the customer would be served by the shopkeeper, who would retrieve all the goods on their shopping list. Shops would often deliver the goods to the customers' homes.
Then in the 1930s supermarkets appeared in the United States during the Great Depression as customers became price sensitive in a manner never seen before. In supermarkets, and their larger cousins the hypermarkets, customers select goods, retrieve them off the shelves using self-service, and may even scan the items to generate their bill and pack their own goods. Customers deliver their own goods. Subsequently, online retailing has been added to the options for customers via the Internet where after selection and purchase the goods are delivered to their homes.
Within each of these different retailing models, be it individual retailers, supermarkets, or online retailing operations, there exists another retailing concept, business-to-business (B2B) retailing wherein one business acts as the customer to another business. For example, a supermarket, such as Krogers, Safeway, Wal-Mart etc, sources the products it sells either directly from multiple producers such as PepsiCo, Nestlé, Unilever, Kraft, and General Mills or from food distributors such as Sysco Corporation who purchase and manage logistics for the retailer.
Since the Industrial Revolution products have been shipped in bulk from a manufacturer to a retailer in a variety of packaging display vehicles. The package display vehicles need to be attractive, stand up to the rigors of shipment, requiring minimal handling at the retail level and provide easy access to the product. They also need to be cost effective. With the recent drastic changes in the retail environment over the past few years with low cost supermarkets/hypermarkets and big box retailers these retailers no longer want to even cut cases for display or unpack goods onto the shelves. Excess protective packaging such as increase board strength, using double wall versus single wall, dividers, corner boards, slip sheets, layer pads or trays between layers of packages, all add additional material, labor and freight costs to the manufacturer, retailer and the consumer. These cost variables can frequently be overlooked but can add to significant excess costs. The constant competitive pressure to drive costs down on the manufacturing and retail sides, while, at a minimum, maintaining profitability present challenges which the embodiments of the invention address.
At the same time retailers demand packaging that facilitates high sales turnover within the allocated space in the shortest amount of time. They demand that the products be ready to shop once the pallet hits the retail floor and any perimeter protective packaging is removed. The next time they want to touch the packaging display vehicle is to recycle it once empty. To compound matters, many of the large retailers and warehouse clubs, have varying requirements for special promotions, graphics, packages, sizes, and counts etc. which make long production runs less feasible. Adding to these factors, there is constant pressure to reduce the costs to retailers and as the life cycles of a product package size, structure, quantity, graphics, merchandising, etc. become shorter then these reduce the feasibility for long term packaging machinery expenditures by the manufacturer. In many instances, the retailer does not want to do anything more than remove part of the packaging the products are shipped in to yield the product display the customer interacts with.
At the same time retailers and customers alike do not want products that have been damaged in transit, storage or on display as well as ensuring other problems are overcome to avoid deleterious effects on the product that, in turn, might impair its marketability. Likewise, retailers and manufacturers alike do not want the costs associated with returns where the product has been damaged even if the packaging appears unaffected. This has tended to result in increased packaging around the product in order to attain the necessary strength and rigidity. Of the packaging display vehicles used for such packaging, it has heretofore been necessary, in many instances, for them to be formed of heavy gauge costly material and/or to utilize special reinforcing inserts to be positioned within the packaging display vehicle. Numerous multiple 90 and 180 degree folds are required to lock reinforcement features in place adding additional labor costs, production displays and additional opportunities for repetitive stress injuries to occur.
Further, the weight and current designs of the superimposed stacked arrangement of product packaging in storage, display, shipment, etc. certain external packaging is subjected to substantial compressive forces leading to use of thicker cardboard etc. in packaging in order to avoid the collapse or distortion of the lower packaging sometimes nesting inside the container it was supposed to be superimposed and stacked on, resulting in sidewall deflection, tearing of adjoining interlocking supports and panels, accidental exposure of product and in some cases, pallet loads collapsing. To overcome this, some packaging designs use display trays with smaller footprints and a smaller number of products per display in order to minimize twisting, torque and other disfigurement resulting from excessive stress when extra products are added. This results in an increased unit cost per package as the cost of the display and assembly is prorated over fewer pieces.
Most prior art packaging efforts focus on getting the product safely from the plant, to the retailers' distribution center and ultimately to the retail floor. In some cases, minimal effort seems to be placed on designing a package that will withstand the rigors of how it is actually shopped on to the retail floor. At this stage, the removal of product(s) from the packaging should leave the remainder intact and presenting an appealing image to the customer. The retailer does not want to pay employees to individually reposition each product item on display in a manner that is both appealing to the customer and safe for the product nor do customers want to rummage through a product display to ascertain the product in front of them or find one that appeals to them. Accordingly, many products are packaged in packaging formats that provide a stable base but result in increased packaging volume and therefore reduced product count per package. Embodiments of the invention address these issues.
At the same time, lead times are continuing to shrink such that varying product packaging requires manufacturers can mix-and-match a small number of elements to provide the desired flexibility in packaging options and desired response time of retailers Embodiments of the invention address these issues.
Within the prior art there are a large number of patents that address different aspects of product packaging but none address all of the issues identified above nor do any of these prior art packaging approaches provide an adequate solution to retailers evolving demands. Further, most of these prior art approaches tend to address products that are small, lightweight, and approximately constant in their three dimensions. Solutions for high aspect ratio products are far less common.
Accordingly, there is a need for a packaging solution that allows a common package footprint to handle multiple different products.
There is further a need in the art for a container with improved strength characteristics to withstand the collapsing or lateral deflection of vertical container walls which may result when forces are applied to such containers without requiring complex assembly or design.
There is further a need for a container that is optimally adapted for pallet-type marketing, namely retail sale of products displayed in bulk in the containers in which they are shipped in bulk.
There is a further a need for a container which is easy to manipulate and easy to assemble.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate limitations within the prior art relating to product packaging and product display, and more particularly to methods and devices for providing low cost product retainment during shipping and enhanced display characteristics at retailer.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising;
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:
The present invention is directed to product packaging and product display, and more particularly to methods and devices for providing low cost product retainment during shipping and enhanced display characteristics at retailer.
The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an exemplary embodiment. It being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope as set forth in the appended claims.
A “package,” “box,” “container,” or “carton” as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to an outer packaging employed in the packaging, shipment, storage, and display of products which are packaged or unpackaged within.
Referring to
Alternatively, after the lid 106 is removed, the body 102, with the packaged products P loaded therein, can be positioned in a display location. In order to permit access to the packaged products P by a consumer, a bottom flap 107 and side flaps 108 of the body 102 must also be opened. In this state, however, the body 102, appears unkempt and only permits limited viewing of one face of the packaged products P. In addition, when the bottom flap 107 and the side flaps 108 are opened, the body 102 no longer provides adequate support for the packaged products P. For example, if the packaged products P are packaged as individual bags or soft-side packages, the side flaps 108 and, especially, the bottom flap 107 no longer provide vertical or lateral support for the packaged products P. The packaged products P, therefore, can easily fall through one of the openings 105. Consequently, positioning of the body 102 in a display location, with the packaged products P loaded therein, results in a product display which is generally unappealing and unattractive to a consumer.
An embodiment of a prior art shipping and display container 100 according to the prior art packaging approach according to embodiments of the invention as disclosed within U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,366 are depicted in
Further, as shown in
The front panel 130 includes a back face (not shown) facing toward the back panel 120 and a front face 134 facing away from the back panel 120 opposite the back face. As shown in
The cover 200 also includes a pair of top side flaps 212 extending from opposite sides of the top panel 210, a back flap 214 extending from a back edge of the top panel 210, and a pair of front side flaps 222 extending from opposite sides of the front panel 220. The top side flaps 212 extend downward from the top panel 210 and are preferably oriented generally perpendicular to the top panel 210. The back flap 214 is configured to extend generally downward from the top panel 210 and is pivotable relative to the top panel 210 about the back edge thereof. The front side flaps 222 extend rearward from the front panel 220 and are preferably oriented generally perpendicular to the front panel 220. As such, each of the top side flaps 212 are secured to an adjacent one of the front side flaps 222 by, for example, adhesive, tape, or staples.
Referring to
However, both prior art packaging solutions as depicted in
Accordingly, referring to
Referring to
This being evident in
Now referring to
Third Packaging Support 1000C in contrast is designed to engage with large products within a carton, e.g. air filters which are large surface area but thin, large area grills, and other products. As depicted in
Within the foregoing descriptions of embodiments of the invention in respect of
Within embodiments of the invention the Packaging Supports have been described as separate to the box within which the products are shipped and/or displayed. However, it would be evident that within other embodiments of the invention the Packaging Supports may be integral to the box either through attachment prior to insertion of the products, e.g. by glue, tape, staples, etc, or integrally formed within the box at its manufacture.
The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.
Further, in describing representative embodiments of the present invention, the specification may have presented the method and/or process of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth in the specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of the present invention should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
