Shelf expander for supermarkets

A flat blank formed of transparent, synthetic plastic material which when erected creates an open bin that is readily secured to the front edge of a supermarket shelf to enlarge its capacity to store and display additional merchandise. The blank is constituted by a rectangular base panel whose opposing long sides are joined by living hinges to the corresponding sides of rear and front panels, the opposing ends of the rear panel being joined by living hinges to end panels. By folding up the front and rear panels and swinging in the end panels and latching them to the front and base panels, a three-dimensional bin is created whose rear panel can then be adhesively attached to holding clips received in the existing price channel at the front edge of the shelf.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
1. Field of Invention 
This invention relates generally to a shelf extender making it possible to 
enlarge the capacity of a supermarket shelf to which the extender is 
attached to store and display additional merchandise, and more 
particularly to an all-purpose shelf extender that comes in the form of a 
flat blank that can readily be erected to create a transparent, 
three-dimensional open bin whose rear wall may be adhesively secured to 
holding clips receiving in the existing price channel at the front edge of 
the shelf to be extended. 
2. Status of Prior Art 
The modern supermarket carries many hundreds of items such as canned and 
bottled foods and beverages, dry cereals, boxed soaps, toothpaste, 
cosmetics and drugs as well as sundry other articles of merchandise. The 
interior architecture of the typical supermarket is such as to facilitate 
the flow therethrough of consumer-propelled shopping carts. To this end, 
the supermarket layout is arranged to define parallel aisles, each of 
which is banked by shelves on which various items of merchandise are 
stored and displayed. In this way, a customer pushing a shopping cart 
along any aisle in the store can see the merchandise displayed on the 
shelves and transfer bottles, boxes or cans of merchandise he wishes to 
purchase to his shopping cart. 
Each item of merchandise usually has its price marked thereon or it carries 
a UPC marking from which the price can be determined by a computer 
terminal at the checkout counter. In order that the consumer know the 
price without having to remove the item from the shelf to examine the 
price marking thereon, the edge of each shelf is provided with a price 
channel which runs the length of the shelf. Inserted in this channel are 
cards having printed thereon the price of the item on the shelf directly 
above the cart. Since supermarket prices are subject to frequent change as 
a result of special sales and other factors, the advantage of a price 
channel is that it lends itself to easy replacement of one price card by 
another. The present invention, as will become later evident, exploits the 
existence of this price channel for a purpose having nothing to do with 
pricing. 
Though the typical modern supermarket can accommodate hundreds of different 
products and has an enormous overall shelf capacity, in many cases this 
capacity still falls short of the store's requirements under certain 
special circumstances. Manufacturers in our highly competitive economy 
continue to add to their product line and to introduce new items requiring 
additional shelf space. Many of these new products, at the time they are 
first introduced to the market, are heavily promoted in the media, so that 
the demand therefor may surge, possibly to the detriment of competitive 
products. In order for the supermarket to satisfy a demand for a 
heavily-promoted item, it is important that shelf space be found for this 
item whose placement takes into account that the shopper is likely to be 
looking for this particular item. 
It is important, therefore, that whatever shelf space is allocated to the 
new item be conspicuous so that a shopper is not forced to hunt for it 
among the multitude of other items available in the supermarket. In a 
supermarket, the shelves are in a vertical array, one above the other, and 
if an item is placed on the lowermost shelf, it may be overlooked by the 
shopper who is best able to see items which appear on a shelf at the 
shopper's eye level. The natural tendency of a supermarket merchandiser is 
to place those items having the greatest current sales appeal on the most 
conspicuous shelves and to relegate those of lesser interest to other 
shelves. Hence the supermarket merchandiser is faced not only with the 
problem of finding shelf space for a new item, but also with the effective 
placement of this shelf. 
In recent years, in order to provide additional shelf space, shelf 
expanders have been devised in the form of open wire trays adapted to 
clamp onto the front edge of the shelf. Such shelf extenders are 
relatively expensive and they are fairly difficult to attach to a shelf or 
to be detached therefrom. Moreover, these known types of shelf-expanders 
also require a substantial amount of storage space which in a typical 
supermarket is in short supply. The number of shelf expanders in use at a 
given time depends on changing circumstances, so that while on a 
particular day no more than, say, five such expanders may be in use, at 
other times more than thirty or forty may be needed. To meet these 
changing requirements, the supermarket must keep in storage a large number 
of shelf expanders, and these require a substantial amount of storage 
space. 
Another drawback of known types of shelf expanders is that the means used 
to attach to the expanders for the front edge of the shelf may interfere 
with the removal of items resting on this shelf or partially block these 
items from view. 
SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
In view of the foregoing, the main object of the invention is to provide an 
all-purpose shelf expander formed from a flat blank of synthetic plastic 
material, whereby a large number of such blanks may be transported in a 
compact package and stored in a confined storage space. 
More particularly, an object of this invention is to provide a blank of the 
above-type which when erected creates a transparent, three-dimensional bin 
having a large capacity for displaying and storing merchandise at a 
position directly in front of the shelf to which the bin is attached, 
thereby effectively enlarging the capacity of this shelf. 
Also an object of the invention is to provide a shelf expander which is 
adhesively attachable to holding clips received in the existing price 
channel on the front edge of the shelf, thereby simplifying the attachment 
or detachment of the shelf expander without interfering with the removal 
of items from this shelf or blocking them from view. 
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a shelf expander blank 
that may be mass-produced at low cost. 
Briefly stated, these objects are attained in a flat blank formed of 
transparent, synthetic plastic material which when erected creates an open 
bin that is readily secured to the front edge of a supermarket shelf to 
enlarge its capacity to store and display additional merchandise. The 
blank is constituted by a rectangular base panel whose opposing long sides 
are joined by living hinges to the corresponding sides of rear and front 
panels, the opposing ends of the rear panel being joined by living hinges 
to end panels. By folding up the front and rear panels and swinging in the 
end panels and latching them to the front and base panels, a 
three-dimensional bin is created whose rear panel can then be adhesively 
attached to holding clips received in the existing price channel at the 
front edge of the shelf.

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION 
FIG. 1 shows a shelf expander, generally designated by numeral 10, in 
accordance with the invention. It will be seen that the expander has an 
open, bin-like, rectangular form and is adhesively attached by holding 
clips 11 and 12 to the existing price channel 13 at the front edge of a 
supermarket shelf 14. 
Shelf expander 10 is fabricated entirely of transparent, synthetic plastic 
material such as polyvinyl chloride of acrylic; and as shown in FIG. 2, it 
is molded or otherwise fabricated in the form of a flat blank 10B of this 
material. The blank and the shelf expander created thereby includes a 
rectangular base panel 15 having a longitudinal row of clean-out holes 16 
therein to facilitate cleaning of the bin. 
One long side of base panel 15 is joined by a living hinge 17 to the 
corresponding side of a rear panel 18 of the same length, while the 
opposing long side of base panel 15 is joined by a living hinge 19 to the 
corresponding side of a front panel 20 of the same length. The upper edge 
of front panel 20 is provided with an elongated U-shaped cutout 21 to 
provide easy access to merchandise stored and displayed in the open bin. 
The opposing ends of rear panel 18 are respectively joined by living hinges 
22 and 23 to the corresponding ends of end panels 24 and 25 which have the 
sam end dimensions. Formed at the front edge of each end panel is a right 
angle flange F.sub.1, and formed at the bottom edge thereof is a right 
angle flange F.sub.2. When the blank is erected, flanges F.sub.1 on the 
end panels 24 and 25 overlie the end margins of front panel 20, and 
flanges F.sub.2 then overlie the margins of base panel 16 to stabilize the 
bin structure. 
Each end panel is provided with detent fingers D.sub.1 and D.sub.2. Finger 
D.sub.1 is adapted to snap into a complementary detent recess R.sub.1 at 
the end margin of front panel 20 adjacent its upper edge, while finger 
D.sub.2 is adapted to snap into a complementary detent recess R.sub.2 at 
about the midpoint of the end margin of base panel 15 (see FIG. 4). 
Hence to erect blank 10B, the rear panel 18 and the front panel 20 are 
folded up at right angles to base panel 15, as shown in FIG. 3, and the 
end panels 24 and 25 are swung in and latched by the snap-in detents to 
base panel 15 and front panel 20 to form a sturdy, three-dimensional bin. 
As shown in FIG. 5, price channel 13 secured to the front edge of 
supermarket shelf 14 is provided with parallel rails 13A and 13B which 
normally serve to receive the long edges of a price card. Holding clips 11 
and 12 are adapted to be received between these rails to support the shelf 
expander. Each clip, as shown by clip 11 in FIG. 6, is formed of flexible 
plastic material and includes a rear slide plate 26 having an arcuate 
section 26A to enhance the flexibility of this plate so that it can be 
tensioned and securely retained in the price channel. 
Cantilevered from slide plate 26 is a support plate 27 having adhered 
thereto the rear face of a band 28 of double-faced adhesive having high 
tack properties. The front face is covered by a removable protector sheet 
29 which, after the holding clip is inserted in the price channel, is 
peeled off to expose the front face of the adhesive band. 
Hence to mount the shelf expander on the holding clips, one presses the 
rear panel 18 of shelf expander 10 against the exposed adhesive faces of 
the clips. The strength of this adhesive attachment is such as to hold the 
shelf expander securely in place in front of the shelf to provide a bin 
for accommodating merchandise to be stored and displayed. And should it 
later be necessary to remove the shelf expander, it is a simple matter to 
detach it from the holding clips. Each holding clip also has a stiffening 
ridge 30 spaced below the support plate to contact the rear panel of the 
expander and thereby maintain the expander in a generally level attitude 
with respect to the shelf. 
Because blanks 10B are flat, a stack of such blanks may be placed on a 
compact box for shipment and storage until such time as a need arises for 
a shelf expander, at which point a blank is taken out of the box and 
erected and latched, without tools, to create a three-dimensional bin. 
Thus the supermarket may quickly set up shelf expanders on appropriate 
shelves whenever there is a need therefor, and remove the expanders when 
they have served their purpose. The clips may be designed to cause the 
shelf expander attached thereto to tip slightly upward to allow for good 
visibility and ease of product removal from the shelf above and below the 
expander. 
While there has been shown and described a preferred embodiment of a shelf 
expander for supermarkets in accordance with the invention, it will be 
appreciated that many changes and modifications may be made therein 
without, however, departing from the essential spirit thereof. Thus 
instead of a box-like expander, the end panels may be provided with a 
sloped front edge so that the front panel when latched to the end panel is 
likewise sloped to create a trough-like bin. 
And while a device according to the invention has been disclosed herein as 
an expander or extender for a supermarket shelf, it is useful for other 
types of shelves, whether found in a retail store, an ofice, a stock room 
or in a home. When the shelf to be extended lacks a price channel for 
receiving holding clips, then the holding clips for supporting the shelf 
expander or extender may be screwed or otherwise attached to the edge of 
the shelf to be extended.