GB2275557A

GB2275557A - Sales aid

Info

Publication number: GB2275557A
Application number: GB9300363A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Keith Anthony Oliver
Original assignee: TRANS TECH DESIGNS Ltd
Current assignee: TRANS TECH DESIGNS Ltd
Priority date: 1993-01-09
Filing date: 1993-01-09
Publication date: 1994-08-31
Also published as: GB9300363D0

Abstract

A sales aid comprises a first receptacle for a stock indication carrier, means to retain the stock indication carrier in the first receptacle, a second receptacle for an identification member and means to retain the identification member in the second receptacle. The sales aid may be associated with a CD box in which instance, the stack indication carrier may be a strip 24, adapted to be held e.g. adhesively, in a first receptacle 23, and the identification carrier C may be held in a second receptacle 26 in the base of the CD box. Barrier C may be wedged into position in receptacle 26. <IMAGE>

Description

Title: "Sales Aid" Decription of Invention This invention relates to a sales aid for articles of vendable stock particularly, but not exclusively, audio tape cassettes, video tape cassettes, compact discs, digital compact cassettes and mini compact discs and video games.

An object of the invention is to provide a new and improved sales aid.

According to one aspect of the invention we provide a sales aid comprising a first receptacle for a stock indication carrier, means to retain the stock indication carrier in the first receptacle, a second receptacle for an identification member and means to retain the identification member in the second receptacle.

The first receptacle may have opposed top and bottom faces bounded by a pair of opposed side walls and one end wall, the receptacle being open at the opposite end to permit the identification carrier to be introduced and removed from the first receptacle.

The second receptacle may have opposed top and bottom faces bounded by a pair of opposed side walls and a pair of opposed end walls, access to the second receptacle being admitted by separating the opposed top and bottom faces.

Because the first receptacle is open at one end, the identification carrier may be introduced and removed from the first receptacle without the need to separate the top and bottom faces of the second receptacle and hence of the sales aid as a whole.

The stock indication carrier may comprise an elongate strip.

The stock indication carrier may be provided with a plurality of areas which identify a product being offered for sale and at least one of said areas being covered by a removable price indicating label.

The price indicating label may be adhesively retained on the carrier.

The strip and a wall of the first receptacle may be provided with interengageable detent means to releasably retain the strip in the first receptacle.

The first receptacle may comprise an elongate slot and the stock indication carrier may comprise a strip of corresponding shape to be slidably received in the slot through an opening at one end of the slot.

The slot may be of generally right-parallelopiped configuration having a shorter end wall which is open to permit passage of the strip into and out of the slot.

The first receptacle may be provided along one edge of the sales aid.

The second receptacle may comprise the whole or substantially the whole of the remainder of the aid and may comprise base and top side walls of relatively large extent in both orthogonal directions bounded by side and end walls therebetween. In this case access can be gained to the second receptacle only by separating the parts of the aid.

The parts of the aid may be releasably connected together by detent means provided between the parts.

The identification member may comprise printed matter provided on a suitable substrate such as paper.

The aid may simulate the appearance of one of the products referred to on the stock indication carrier, such as a CD box.

The first receptacle may be provided at the top of the aid.

Alternatively the first receptacle may be provided at the bottom of the aid.

The aid may be dimensioned at least at one edge to fit a standard CD display fixture.

The sales aid may comprise a body of shallow box configuration.

The body may be made of two releasably engageable parts.

One of said parts may be of generally tray configuration comprising a base of rectangular configuration in plan view bounded by four upstanding walls and a lid adapted to interfit with the base.

The lid may be generally planar.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which, FIGURE 1 is an exploded perspective view of a sales aid embodying the invention, FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary plan view, to an enlarged scale, of a modification of the sales aid of Figure 1, and FIGURE 3 is an exploded section on the line 3-3 of Figure 1 but showing an alternative rib configuration.

A sales aid is indicated generally at 10 and comprises a body 11 comprising a first part 12 of shallow tray configuration and a lid 13 comprising a second part of the body and releasably engaged with the first part.

The tray part 12 has a base wall 14 bounded by two opposed side walls 15, a bottom wall 16 and a top wall 17. The walls 15 - 17 extend perpendicularly relative to the base wall 14. The two opposed side walls 15 have inwardly extending projections 18 which co-operate with slightly recessed parts 19 of opposed side walls 20 of the lid 13 to act as a detent to retain the lid 13 in releasable engagement with the tray part 12.

The lid part 13 has inwardly projecting rib 21 adjacent but spaced downwardly from a top edge 22 of the lid 13 and an inwardly projecting rib 21a adjacent to but spaced inwardly from a side wall 20. If desired the tray part 12 may be provided with upstanding ribs, shown in dotted line in Figure 1 at 22 and 22a instead of one or other of the ribs 21 or 21a. Alternatively, at least one of the upstanding ribs 22, 22a may be provided as well as the respective rib 21, 21a in which case the respective rib 21a and/or 22a may overlap with the rib 21, 22a on either side thereof depending upon the positioning of the ribs. Further alternatively the ribs 21, 21L 22, 22a may be of complementary height so that the free ends of the ribs 21, 22, and 21g, 22a co-operate to provide a dividing wall.

Figure 3 illustrates this further alternative configuration. In this case the end face of one of the ribs 21, 22, 21ss, 22a may be provided with a shallow groove of, for example, "U" or "V" configuration, whilst the edge of the other rib is provided with a projection of corresponding configuration to interfit with the groove.

The space bounded by the top wall 17, rib 21 and/or rib 22, together with a part 15a of one side wall 15, comprises a first receptacle 23 for a stock indication carrier 24. The receptacle 23 is of elongate slot configuration having an opening 25 at one of the shorter ends thereof to enable the stock indication carrier 24 to be introduced into and removed from the receptacle 23.

The stock indication carrier 24 comprises a strip of suitable synthetic plastics material which carries a plurality of stock indication areas marked A, B, C and D in the Figure. The areas carry suitable legend, for example, the areas A - D may respectively each carry the following legend: Tape out of stock; DCC out of stock; CD out of stock; MCD out of stock. It will be appreciated, however, that any other vendable article may be indicated as out of stock, depending upon the articles being sold.

The strip 24 also carries an advertising legend in the area E which may, for example, advertise the manufacturer of the products or the identity of the shop in which the aid is to be used.

In use, when a product is in stock the respective area or areas A, B, C and D are covered with a removable label which indicates that the respective product is in stock and, preferably, indicates the price. In Figure 1 it is shown that articles of areas A and C are in stock and hence these areas are shown covered by a label Al, C1 respectively, these labels being marked Tape n.nn and CD n.nn.

When a particular product is sold out, then the respective label is removed. In the example illustrated the shop has no stock of the DCC and MCD and therefore the in stock labels have been removed. The labels are preferably provided with a low tack adhesive to permit of easy removal. The stock indicator may be provided on the strip by printing on the strip, or printing on a substrate such as card which is introduced into the receptacle with the trip and is preferably secured thereto by suitable means, such as adhesive.

The region of the aid bounded by the bottom wall 16, top wall 17, the rib 21 and/or 22 on the opposite side thereof to the first receptacle 23 and the rib 21a and/or rib 22a on the opposite sides thereof to the part 15b of the side wall 15 comprises a second receptacle 26 to receive an identification carrier C therein. The identification carrier may be a sheet of paper having printed thereon suitable identification information. Typically the paper would be a conventional "sleeve" of a conventional CD container. In the present example the aid 10 is dimensioned so that the second receptacle 26 is of similar size to the receptacle part of a conventional CD container. It is preferred that the region 13a of the lid 13 between the side wall part 15b and the rib 21a and/or 22a is provided with an appearance which simulates the "spine" part of a conventional CD container. For example, the part 13a may be provided with a plurality of parallel ribs 13b.

Access may be gained to the interior of the second receptacle 26 only by separating the top and bottom wall 16, 17 by releasing the lid part 13 from the tray part 14. In contrast, the stock indication carrier 24 can be introduced into or removed from the first receptacle 23 without the need to separate the top and bottom walls 16, 17 simply by passage through the opening 25.

In order to retain the stock indication carrier 24 in the receptable 23 a suitable detent may be provided. Alternatively, the strip 24 may be slightly wider at the outer end 24a thereof compared with its width at the inner end 24b thereof so as to "wedge" between the inside surface of the wall 17 and the rib 21 and or 22. Further alternatively the strip 24 may be of constant width along its length, but made to be a frictional sliding fit in the receptacle 23.

Where a detent is provided it may comprise a projection 27 on the part 14a of the wall 14 within the receptacle 23 which is adapted to interfit with a recess 28 provided on the "under" side of the strip 24. Alternatively, and as shown in Figure 2, the wall 17 may be provided with an inwardly directed projection 29 whilst the strip 24 is provided with a longitudinally extending slot 30 which provides a finger 31 which normally tends to flair outwardly from the remainder of the strip 24 and thus be deformed inwardly during introduction of the strip 24 into the receptacle 23 to wedge with the projection 29 as shown in Figure 2. Alternatively the strip 24 may be provided with an outwardly bulged region 32 which wedges with the projection 27.

Although in the present example the sales aid is of dimensions to simulate a conventional CD container, it may be made of other dimensions and may simulate other articles. In the present case, because the aid simulates a standard CD container it will fit a standard CD display fixture.

The parts of the sales aid may be made by moulding in a suitable synthetic plastics material such as a polycarbonate, crystal styrene or A.B.S.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the accompanying drawings expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, or a class or group of substances or compositions, as appropriate, may, separately or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A sales aid comprising a first receptacle for a stock indication carrier, means to retain the stock indication carrier in the first receptacle, a second receptacle for an identification member and means to retain the identification member in the second receptacle.

2. A sales aid according to claim 1 wherein the first receptacle has opposed top and bottom faces bounded by a pair of opposed side walls and one end wall, the receptacle being open at the opposite end to said one end wall to permit the identification carrier to be introduced and removed from the first receptacle.

3. A sales aid according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the second receptacle has opposed top and bottom faces bounded by a pair of opposed side walls and a pair of opposed end walls, access to the second receptacle being permitted by separating the opposed top and bottom faces.

4. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the stock indication carrier comprises an elongate strip.

5. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the stock indication carrier is provided with a plurality of areas which identify a product being offered for sale and at least one of said areas is covered by a removable price indicating label.

6. A sales aid according to claim 5 wherein the price indicating label is adhesively retained on the carrier.

7. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the stock indication carrier and a wall of the first receptacle are provided with interengageable detent means to releasably retain the stock indication carrier in the first receptacle.

8. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the first receptacle comprises an elongate slot and the stock indication carrier comprises a strip of corresponding shape to be slidably received in the slot through an opening at one end of the slot.

9. A sales aid according to claim 8 wherein the slot is of generally rightparallelopiped configuration having a shorter end wall which is open to permit passage of the strip into and out of the slot.

10. A sales aid according to any one of preceding claims wherein the first receptacle is provided along one edge of the sales aid.

11. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the second receptacle comprises the whole or substantially the whole of the remainder of the aid.

12. A sales aid according to claim 11 wherein the second receptacle comprises base and top side walls of relatively large extent in both orthogonal directions bounded by side and end walls therebetween.

13. A sales aid according to claim 3 or any one of claims 4 to 12 when dependent on claim 3 wherein the base and top side walls are provided on separate parts of the aid, which parts are releasably connected together by detent means provided between the parts.

14. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the identification member comprises printed matter provided on a suitable substrate.

15. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the aid simulates the appearance of one of the products referred to on the stock indication carrier.

16. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the first receptacle is provided at the top of the aid.

17. A sales aid according to any one of claims 1 to 15 wherein the first receptacle is provided at the bottom of the aid.

18. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the aid is dimensioned at least at one edge to fit a standard CD display fixture.

19. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the sales aid comprises a body of shallow box configuration.

20. A sales aid according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the body comprises two releasably engageable parts.

21. A sales aid according to claim 20 wherein one of said parts is of generally tray configuration comprising a base of rectangular configuration in plan view bounded by four upstanding walls and a lid adapted to interfit with the base.

22. A sales aid according to claim 21 wherein the lid is generally planar.

23. A sales aid substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Fig.1, or Fig.1 and Fig.2, or Fig.1 and Fig.3 of the accompanying drawings.

24. Any novel feature or novel combination of features described herein and/or in the accompanying drawings.