CHECK-OUT COUNTER TABLE

Abstract: A check-out counter table has a commodity receiving wall which extends leftwardly and rightwardly of a vertical type bar code reader having a reading window formed in a front wall thereof. A stopper adapted to present a high contacting resistance is provided at a location on the commodity receiving wall directly forwardly of the bar code reader on the carrying in side for a basket. When a basket is pulled toward an operator and slipped on the commodity receiving wall, it is always stopped at a fixed position by the stopper.

Description: This invention relates to a check-out counter table of a check-out system which is used in a retail store. Generally, in a merchandise sales system of the type mentioned, a cash register and/or a vertical type bar code reader making use of a laser beam are provided in front of a cashier or an operator, and a pair of check-out counter tables each having a flat commodity receiving surface formed thereon are disposed on the left and right sides of the bar code reader. Thus, a basket in which commodities are contained is placed on the right-hand side commodity receiving surface while an empty basket is placed on the left-hand side commodity receiving surface, and a commodity is taken out from the right-hand side basket while data from the commodity such as data regarding a price is read by the bar code reader, and then the commodity for which registration has been completed is thrown into the left-hand side basket. After completion of registration in this manner of data of all of the commodities which has been initially contained in the right-hand side basket, the left-hand side basket is taken away by the customer while the thus emptied right-hand side basket is moved to the left-hand side location by the operator. With the conventional check-out counter table having such a construction as described above, when data of commodities are to be read, an operation of picking up a commodity from within the right-hand side basket and throwing it into the left-hand side basket must be performed for each of the commodities. Accordingly, it is desirable that the location of the right-hand side basket be always fixed. To this end, care must be taken upon carrying in of a basket such that it may be placed at a fixed location. Since this operation, however, is performed by hand, it is difficult to place a basket at the fixed location. An attempt has thus been made to form on a commodity receiving surface, convex and concave portions for stopping a basket compulsorily at a fixed location. While this means is effective in stopping a basket at a fixed location, it presents another problem that it is low in operability in moving a basket in that, when an emptied basket is moved to the left-hand side location, the convex and concave portions formed on the commodity receiving surface make an obstruction to such movement of the basket. GB Patent Specification 1,185,855, the source of the known features of the precharacterising part of independent Claim 1, discloses a check-out desk having a horizontally elongated check-out counter body having a rectangular commodity receiving surface, a cash register located at a central region relative to said counter body and a stopper for controlling movement of a commodity basket on said rectangular receiving surface. The problem with this system is that a stop bar is only provided at the end of the receiving surface, and it is not possible for a basket to move beyond that position. Thus, after the basket has reached the stop bar a re-packing operation has to take place and therefore a smooth through flow of commodities and customers cannot be achieved. The present invention as defined in independent Claim 1, is characterized in that the stopper is located at a position to stop an incoming basket at an intermediate location on said counter table where commodities can be checked by said bar code reader after which the basket can be moved further along said table and is formed from an elastic member located in a groove within the plane of said receiving surface so as to provide a high contact resistance against sliding of the filled basket beyond the stopper and a lower resistance when the basket is empty. With this arrangement a series of baskets can slide along the counter table, and their positions are controlled. In particular commodities can be taken out of a first basket and be checked against a bar code reader after which they are placed in a second further advanced basket. Once the first basket is unloaded the contact resistance falls and it can be slid onwards to become the second basket for the next customer. Thus an efficient fast flowing movement of baskets and customers is realised. Further preferred embodiments of the invention are defined in dependent claims 2 and 3. Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a check-out counter table showing a first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the check-out counter table of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view showing a stopper of the check-out counter table of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a similar view but showing the stopper of Fig. 3 with a basket placed thereon; Fig. 5 is a front elevational view of a check-out counter table showing a second embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the check-out counter table of Fig. 5. Referring first to Figs. 1 to 4, there is shown a check-out counter table of a first embodiment of the present invention. The check-out counter table shown includes a horizontally elongated check-out counter body 1 which has a rectangular commodity receiving wall 2 formed thereon as a flat wall elongated in leftward and rightward directions. A vertical type bar code reader 4 is provided substantially at a central location of the check-out counter body 1 with a basket passing portion 3 left in front of the check-out counter body 1. The bar code reader 4 has a reading window 5 formed in a front wall thereof through which coded bars printed on a label applied to a commodity are to be read. An operation panel 6 is provided in an inclined relationship to the operator side on the bar code reader, and a display section 7 which may be a liquid crystal display device or the like is provided at a portion of the operation panel 6. Another display section 8 is provided for a customer on the left side of the operation panel 6. A right-hand side portion of the check-out counter body 1 serves as a carrying in side by way of which a basket 9 in which commodities are contained is carried in to the check-out counter body 1, and a guide rail 10 for preventing such a basket 9 from coming off from the check-out counter body 1 extends in the leftward and rightward directions on the front side of the commodity receiving surface 2 of the carrying in side of the check-out counter body 1. Meanwhile, a stopper 11 is provided at a location of the commodity receiving surface 2 of the check-out counter body 1 directly forwardly of the bar code reader 4. The stopper 11 is made of an elastic substance such as a rubber material and lies in a substantially same plane with a surface of the commodity receiving surface 2 so that it provides a high contact resistance to the basket 9. In particular, the check- out counter body 1 has a groove 13 formed in the commodity receiving surface 2 thereof. The groove 13 extends in the forward and rearward directions and has a pair of stepped portions 12 such that it may be deeper at a central portion thereof. The stopper 11 is held in a stopper holding frame 14 made of stainless steel and mounted in the groove 11. A hub 15 is mounted in an integral relationship on the stopper holding frame 14 and is pulled down by means of a machine screw 16 which is mounted in and extends through the commodity receiving surface 2 from the bottom face side of the commodity receiving surface 2 so that the stopper holding frame 14 is secured in position on the stepped portions 12 of the commodity receiving surface 2. The stopper holding frame 14 has a depression at a central portion thereof so that a spacing 17 is formed at a central location below the lower face of the stopper 11. It is to be noted that a plurality of drawers 18 and racks 19 are provided on the operator side of the check-out counter body 1. With the check-out counter table having such a construction as described above, a basket 9 in which commodities are contained is placed on the right-hand side location of the commodity receiving surface 2 of the check-out counter body 1. Actually, the basket 9 is placed at a location A shown in Fig. 2. An operator thus pulls the basket 9 toward the operator side under the guidance of the guide rail 10, and then when the bottom face of the basket 9 is contacted with the stopper 11, the sliding resistance thereof increases suddenly. Accordingly, the position of the basket 9 is always controlled by the stopper 11 and thus stopped at a fixed location indicated at B in Fig. 2. It is to be noted that, since the location A is vacant then, another basket 9 can be placed at the location A. If the weight of the basket 9 is great, the central portion of the stopper 11 is depressed a little as shown in Fig. 4, thereby promoting the stopping action of the stopper 11. Meanwhile, an empty basket 9 lies at a location C on the left side of the commodity receiving surface 2, and the operator thus takes out a commodity from the basket 6 on the right side, passes the commodity in front of the reading window 5 of the bar code reader 4, and then throws it into the basket 9 on the left side. Thereupon, coded bars printed on a label applied to the commodity are read out so that various data such as data regarding a price of the commodity is stored in memory. The commodity for which data has been read out are all transferred into the basket 9 at the location C in this manner. The basket 9 at the location C is then moved by the customer to another location D at which packaging of the commodities or some other operation is conducted. Then, the basket 9 at the location B is moved to the thus vacant location C. Thereupon, however, since the basket 9 is empty with no commodity contained therein, the weight thereof is so small that it can be slipped on the commodity receiving surface 2 of the check-out counter body 1 by a relatively small force although the contacting resistance by the stopper 11 is high. Further, even if the stopper 11 has been deformed in such a manner as shown in Fig. 4, the degree of deformation thereof is reduced so that the stopper 11 will not make an obstruction to movement of the basket 9 to the location C. It is to be noted that while in the embodiment described above the stopper 11 is described formed from an elastic substance, it may otherwise be formed from a material in the form of a sheet only if it presents a high contacting resistance. Referring now to Figs. 5 and 6, there is shown a check-out counter table according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The check-out counter table shown has a vertical stationary type bar code reader 20 provided thereon. The bar code reader 20 has a reading window 21 formed in a front wall thereof and has an operation panel 22 and a display section 23 disposed at an upper wall thereof. The bar code reader 20 is secured to a central portion of a horizontally elongated commodity counter 24. The check-out counter table here is designed such that bar code data of a commodity 25 may be read by the bar code reader 20 during movement of the commodity 25 when the commodity 25 picked up from a basket 26 which is placed on one side of the commodity counter 24 and in which commodities 25 are contained is passed in front of the reading window 21 of the bar code reader 20 and put into another empty basket 26 which is placed on the other side of the commodity receiving table 24. The commodity counter 24 includes a flat high located commodity receiving surface 27 formed on the right-hand side thereof at a relatively high location, a central commodity receiving surface 28 contiguous to the high located commodity receiving surface 27 and inclined downwardly toward the left side, and a flat low located commodity receiving surface 29 contiguous to the central commodity receiving surface 28 and formed at the left-hand side location thereof. A pair of stoppers 30 are provided at a left end portion of the high located commodity receiving surface 27 and at a left end portion of the low located commodity receiving surface 29. The stoppers 30 are disposed substantially in the same planes with surfaces of the commodity receiving surface 27 and 29 and adapted to present a high contacting resistance. Each of the stoppers 30 has a similar structure to that of the stopper 11 in the preceding embodiment described hereinabove with reference to Fig. 3. With the check-out counter table having such a construction as described above, a basket 26 in which commodities 25 are contained is placed on the high located commodity receiving surface 27 of the commodity counter 24. In this instance, the customer waiting for check-out stands at a location away from the high located commodity receiving surface 27 of the commodity counter 24, and when the turn for check-out comes to the customer, the basket 26 is slidably moved to a location on the high located commodity receiving surface 27 near the central commodity receiving surface 28. Thereupon, an end of a lower portion of the basket 26 rides on the stopper 30 which presents a high contacting friction so that the sliding resistance increases suddenly. Accordingly, the basket 26 will be stopped once even if it is slidably moved inadvertently, and hence such an accident can be prevented that the basket 26 may fall down toward the downwardly inclined central commodity receiving surface 28 so that the commodities 25 therein are scattered. Meanwhile, the stopper 30 is deformed downwardly in response to an amount of the commodities 25 within the basket 26, that is, in response to the total weight of the commodities 25. Then, if a commodity 25 is taken out from the basket 26 on the high located commodity receiving surface 27 of the commodity counter 24, moved linearly while being inclined downwardly and then put into the basket 26 on the low located commodity receiving surface 29, bar code data of the commodity 25 is read out by the bar code reader 20 when it passes in front of the reading window 21. Since data is read out from the commodity 25 in this manner while it is moved downwardly as it is acted upon by the gravity, the fatigue of an arm of an operator can be reduced, and the efficiency in reading operation can be improved. Then, the basket 26 in which the commodities 25 for which data has been read are contained is moved toward the outer end side of the low located commodity receiving surface 29 of the commodity counter 24 and then taken away from the commodity counter 24. Also in this instance, the basket 26 may be slipped on the low located commodity receiving surface 29. But, since the stopper 30 thereupon stops the basket 26 once at a predetermined location as described hereinabove, the basket 26 will not drop from the commodity counter 24. Meanwhile, since the emptied basket 26 remaining on the high located commodity receiving surface 27 of the commodity counter 24 is now light in weight and is reduced in frictional resistance with respect to the stopper 30, it can be readily slipped over the stopper 30 when it is to be subsequently moved toward the low located commodity receiving surface 29. It is to be noted that the central commodity receiving surface 28 of the commodity applying table 24 may otherwise be set at the same level with the low located commodity receiving surface 29 with its right end connected to the high located commodity receiving surface 27 by means of a vertical wall. Further, the bar code reader 20 may otherwise be formed in an integral relationship with the commodity counter 24 or else be formed independently of and mounted on the central commodity receiving surface 28 or else may be provided independently of the commodity counter 24.

Claims: 1. A check-out counter table comprising a horizontally elongated check-out counter body (1) having a rectangular commodity receiving surface (2), a bar code reader (4) located at a central region relative to said counter body and a stopper (11) for controlling movement of a commodity basket on said rectangular receiving surface, characterised in that the stopper (11) is located at a position to stop an incoming basket at an intermediate location on said counter table directly forward of said bar code reader from where commodities can be checked by said bar code reader after which the basket can be moved further along said table and is formed from an elastic member located in a groove (13) within the plane of said receiving surface (2) so as to provide a high contact resistance against sliding of the filled basket beyond the stopper and a lower resistance when the basket is empty. 2. A check-out and counter table according to claim 1 characterised by a second stopper (30) located at the outgoing end of said counter body for controlling location of the basket after the commodities have been checked. 3. A check-out and counter according to claim 2 which is shaped so that it has an incoming surface (27) at a high level and an outgoing surface (29) at a lower level, which levels are joined by an inclined surface (28) in the central region adjacent said bar code reader.

Inventors: AKITA, HIROMASA, KOHNO, MITSUNORI, KURIMOTO, YUKUO, UMEBARA, TAKAO
Applicants: TOKYO ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: A47F9
IPC codes: A47F9, G06K7