Display package

A display package for holding a folded box for audio-visual material having indicia describing the box contents which consists of a transparent envelope, the envelope comprising sheets of plastic material secured together on their edges, one edge being open to permit the folded box to be inserted into and withdrawn from the envelope, one sheet being rigid for holding the envelope upstanding, thereby being a stop seam at one end of the envelope to hold the folded box positioned away from the envelope edge, and a pocket secured to the envelope on its end opposite the stop seam for holding information related to the category of the audio-visual material. The invention also relates to an indexing system for audio-visual material where a plurality of like such display packages are arranged one behind another in a bin, packed loosely to allow one package to be flipped away from another package for selective browsing through the packages, and to a method for arranging such a system which consists of the steps of removing the materials from their boxes, folding boxes to a flattened condition, inserting each box into such a display package and arranging the packages uprights in a bin for browsing therethrough by a consumer. The display package pocket also includes novel means for holding indicia placed therein from falling from the pocket during flipping and handling of the packages.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to display packages for video cassettes and compact 
discs, useful in indexing and arranging titles and descriptive information 
available for review and selection by customers in the environment of a 
video rental and sales store. The invention also relates to a method for 
efficient organization of displays in such stores. 
Video cassettes and compact discs are normally packaged by the manufacturer 
in oversized boxes, and these boxes have become of substantial value to 
retail rental and sales storekeepers because the packages contain 
descriptive information concerning the contents of the cassette or disc, 
and consumers find these packages essential in making a selection of a 
video or disc for rental or purchase. These packages are usually oversized 
to make it difficult for the potential shoplifter to remove the product 
from the store without being detected. However, the condition of the 
package has also become important, because the wholesale distributor 
usually will not accept return of the product without the package clean 
and in tact; it is also believed that the cassette or disc cannot be sold 
or rented at the best possible price if the package is damaged, missing or 
soiled. For these reasons, most video store operators are very protective 
of the manufacturer's packaging and are concerned with maintaining such 
packages clean and unsoiled, although the business requires that the 
packages be available to the public for use in selecting a tape or disc 
for rental or purchase. It is that dilemma of the storekeepers who want to 
make these packages available for use by the consumer but retain them in 
good condition, that this invention speaks and seeks to solve. 
Usually, in a typical video store such packages prepared and supplied by 
the cassette or disc manufacturer (as the outside jacket of his product) 
are arranged on a shelf or wall display in the store. Where the retailer 
maintains an inventory of several thousand prerecorded cassette and 
compact discs, the space problem for the store is magnified by the display 
requirements. Such a store usually must have several thousand square feet 
to meet the display space requirements, eventhough the inventory 
requirement for the store is very small, because the cassettes and discs 
can be handled in a fraction of the total store space. 
These display problems are even more critical in view of variations in the 
manufacturer's package size and design utilized by different makers. There 
is considerable competition for display space, and each manufacturer tries 
to make its display package more enticing to the consumer, and that motive 
makes it even more difficult for the storekeeper to present an organized 
and convenient display arrangement. Further, some cassettes are available 
for Beta video cassette recorders and others use a VHS system, and each 
maker and system present quirks in the sizing and styling of the display 
boxes, emphasizing the need for a most versatile display system 
These problems in maintaining and using conventional display packages for 
video cassettes and compact discs may be substantially overcome by the 
display package and method embodying the present invention. For example, a 
wall display shelving system popular in the video store business utilizing 
convention display packages and methods requires about 260 square feet, or 
32 lineal feet, eight feet tall, to handle about 1,000 video cassette 
and/or compact disc titles, and evenso, some display packages are too high 
for examination by short people, women and children, and other display 
packages are arranged on floor level shelves, making it difficult for some 
people to reach them. Using the novel display system embodying the present 
invention, only a small fraction of the store space is needed for display 
of the same thousand titles, usually about only six square feet, all at 
counter height convenient for most people to use. 
Moreover, applicant's novel display system opens up to the entrepreneur 
possibilities not available with prior art systems. More titles can be 
handled in the same space. Space rentals on a per title offered basis are 
substantially less. Better and more convenient store locations are 
possible using less square footage. Other opportunities to handle related 
merchandise become available using applicant's system, for example, 
businesses such as convenience and drug stores, supermarkets and the like 
with applicant's system have the opportunity of marketing video cassettes 
and compact discs, without causing special space problems normally 
associated with the use of conventional displays. 
Applicant's display package consists of a special clear plastic envelope of 
sufficient dimension to contain most known video cassettes and compact 
disc display boxes. This novel envelope is constructed so that it is 
adequately rigid to be arranged upstanding in a display bin, but it is 
also suitably soft to permit easy entrance in and withdrawal from the 
envelope of the manufacturer's display package box and other indicia. The 
envelope also has seals and stops to permit the manufacturer's package box 
to be somewhat lifted so that the envelop contents can be easily read as 
the consumer flips through a number of similar envelopes arranged in a 
series one behind the other in a bin. Preferably, each envelope has 
suitable pockets for holding a heading having indicia classifying the 
program contents, as well as other pockets for inventory and similar 
information. It is desirable for the envelopes and a suitable bin for 
holding them to be dimensioned so that the bin can also suitably house the 
envelopes during shipment and then be used by the retailer as a container 
for housing indexed envelopes for use by customers browsing for their 
video cassette or compact disc selections. 
The display package embodying the present invention is even more versatile 
if constructed with pockets in a manner to easily accommodate category and 
inventory information. A novel header pocket for receiving category or 
similar information is constructed in a manner where, without interfering 
with the indicia receiving envelope, it can receive the desired data, and 
will not be dislodged during handling or browsing, by the providing of 
heat seal tabs reducing the entry width of the pocket compartment. Also, 
similar tabs are provided for lower pockets intended to contain inventory 
information, but it is desired that the height of these lower pockets also 
be relatively short to permit easy installing and withdrawing of an 
inventory card. Also, by making these pockets and heat seal tabs 
co-extensive with the display package edge seal seams and the stop seam, 
less expensive manufacturing procedures can be employed in manufacturing 
the product, thus providing an efficient display package at an reasonable 
costs. 
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION 
It is the object of the present invention to provide a novel display 
package of the character recited for video cassettes and compact discs. 
Another object is to provide a display package which consists of an 
envelope suitably transparent for viewing of a folded box inserted therein 
and suitably flexible for easy insertion of the box, but suitably rigid to 
permit like envelopes arranged one behind the other to be indexed 
upstanding and browsed through by a consumer. 
Another object is to provide a series of envelopes containing folded video 
cassette and compact disc display boxes arranged in bins for indexed 
browsing and selection by a consumer. 
Another object is to provide a novel display envelope of transparent 
material having seals and stops for displaying a folded box in a selected 
position. 
Another object is to provide novel transparent display envelope having 
novel pockets for receiving indicia in a header along one edge of such an 
envelope and other novel pockets for receiving indicia along an opposed 
end of such an envelope. 
Another object is to provide novel heat seal tabs for reducing the entry 
width of pockets arranged on the envelope of the display packages. 
Another object is to provide a carton having arranged therein a series of 
transparent envelopes stacked one behind another, wherein the carton is 
suitable for use as a bin for indexed arrangement of such envelopes when 
filled with folded boxes. 
Another object is to provide for a method for efficient organization of 
video cassette and compact disc titles in a video rental and sales store. 
A further object is to provide a display package for video cassette and 
compact disc containers which is inexpensive and efficient to arrange and 
use without affecting future use of such containers. 
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more 
apparent as this description proceeds, taken in conjunction with the 
accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
With reference particularly to FIGS. 1, 2 and 7, an envelope 10 fabricated 
from transparent material, preferably made from sheets of polyethylene or 
poly vinyl chloride, is adapted to receive a folded box B of the kind used 
to house a video cassette or compact disc. Such boxes are usually made 
from paperboard or similar material and are foldable to a flat condition 
when the video cassette or compact disc is removed. The outside surfaces 
of the box usually describes the contents including the title of the work, 
its case and credits, a synopsis of the store or other work contained on 
the cassette or disc, and other information which may be helpful in 
interesting the consumer in the work. 
As shown in FIG. 7, a series of like envelopes 10 are arrange one behalf 
another and side by side in a bin 11. This bin 11 may comprise a 
corrugated box having a conventional cover (not shown) which may be used 
by the envelope manufacturer to ship a supply of envelopes to the video 
stores and then used by the retailer to display envelopes containing the 
folded boxes B, which are usually arranged so that the envelopes may be 
indexed, for example by category or alphabetically or otherwise, and 
flipped for browsing by the consumer when selecting a desired video 
cassette or compact disc title. Once the desired title is selected, the 
consumer may inform an attendant of the selection, and the attendant may 
select the cassette or disc required by the consumer from a secured 
inventory held by the storekeeper away from access by the consumer. 
Preferably, the envelope 10 is fabricated from sheets of predetermined 
varying rigidity. One of the larger sheets 15 of the envelop is preferably 
of relatively stiff plastic, and its adjacent coextensive sheet 16 is 
relatively flexible, so that the pocket 17 formed by the adjacent sheets 
15 and 1 for containing the folded box B is flexible, permitting easy 
entry into the pocket while providing overall rigidity of the envelope to 
permit it to be arranged in selected indexed position upstanding in the 
bin 11. The envelope 10 may also have a header pocket 20, formed by a 
sheet 21 overlaying the larger sheet 15. This header pocket 20 may be used 
to display indicia such as the category or the cassette or disc. 
Lower pockets 22 may also be formed by a lower sheet 23 arranged across the 
lower portion of the adjacent sheets 15 and 16. Preferably, a stop 25 is 
provided across the sheets 15, 16 and 23 which acts to prevent the folded 
box B in pocket 17 from bottoming out in the pocket 17, thus facilitating 
flipping of the envelopes and presenting the boxes B in a more uniform 
position, despite limited differences in sizes. 
Preferably, the entire periphery of the adjacent sheets 15 and 16, except 
the upper edge of the sheet 16, the periphery of the sheet 21, except its 
upper edge, and the periphery of the sheet 23, except its upper edge, are 
sealed by means of a heat-sealed seam 26, and this seam 26 defines the 
pockets. The open entry to the pockets 17, 20, and 22 are defined by the 
unsealed open edges of the sheets 16, 21 and 23, at entries 27, 28 and 29, 
respectively. 
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the header pocket 30 has a heat seam 31 
at its bottom edge of the small sheet 32, so that the pocket 30 has its 
entry at the top edge 33 of the pocket, which is formed by welding or 
other closure between the sheets 15 and 32. In the embodiment shown in 
FIGS. 4, 5, and 6, the header pocket 40 has a header sheet 42, which with 
large sheet 15 forms the pocket, and the heat weld 41 joins the sheets 15 
and 42 together, except at the one side edge 43, which is left open for 
insertion of the header card into the pocket 40. In the FIG. 3 and FIGS. 
4-6 embodiments, there is less chance for the header card to slip out of 
the respective pockets 30 and 40, as compared to pocket 20 in he FIGS. 1-2 
embodiment, because the modified pockets 30 and 40 have an opening other 
than at the bottom of the pocket. However, if the header card intended for 
insertion into the pocket 20 is cut with great care to a size about the 
size of that pocket, there is little danger of the header card falling 
from the pocket, and the additional cost of seaming at heat seal 31 and 
heat weld 41 in the modified embodiment is not always justified. 
With reference particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, a pair of upper heat seal 
tabs 50 are provided in upper or header pocket 20 at the point where the 
sheet 21 is secured to the sheet 15, and a pair of lower heat seal tabs 51 
are provided in the lower or inventory card pocket 22 at the point where 
the sheet 23 is secured to the sheet 16. These tabs 50 and 51 tighten up 
the respective pockets 20 and 22 sufficiently to hold the contents 
securely, free from dislodgement during flipping and handling. Further, 
with respect to the lower pocket 22, preferably it extends only to the 
height of the stop seal 25, making it easier to install or withdraw the 
"VHS" or "BETA" card, without fear of losing it during handling. Also, the 
arrangement of the stop seam 24, edge seam 26, and tab seals 50 and 51 at 
common locations makes it possible to more efficiently construct the 
display package at a more economical cost, because a single heat welding 
operation at those points provides all of the heat welding steps necessary 
to create the desired compartments. 
Preferably, the larger or base sheet 15 is fabricated from about 0.020 
gauge clear rigid poly vinyl chloride plastic and the other sheets are 
fabricated from about 0.006 gauge clear flexible poly vinyl chloride 
plastic. 
While the embodiments of the invention have been described in considerable 
detail, it is not desired that the invention should be limited to the 
exact structure described, as the structure can be modified or changed 
without departing from the scope or spirit or the invention.