Patent Publication Number: US-7219459-B2

Title: Strip retailer and sign holder

Description:
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The inventions described and claimed herein relate to holders for signs and strip retailers that hold products for sale in retail stores. In particular, the holder described herein is for strip retailers (sometimes called “strip clips” or “strip merchandisers”). 
   Strip retailers are an important tool for retail stores to present special or impulse items to customers. It is important to support the strip retailer in secure manner, and to have appropriate signage for pricing or other descriptive information directly adjacent to items offered for sale with the strip retailer. 
   Some strip retailers have a small integral sign holder in the form of a slightly enlarged upper ends that provide limited place for information about the products that are attached to the strip by clips. An example of a slightly enlarged integral sign holder can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,422 (Shea) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,675 (Kass et al). Such integral sign holders are typically small and designed to accommodate only adhesive labels, i.e., they do not have pouches with a place for removable signage. In other instances, signage for the items offered in a strip retailer are attached to support arms that extend from a shelf (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,916 (Valiulis) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,003 (Gebka)) or by totally separate sign supporting structures (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,124 (Kump)). 
   Strip retailers are attached to shelves in retail stores in various ways. One such way is by a simple hook extending through a hole in the upper end of the strip retailer. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,403 (Crysdale). Examples of more complex devices used to support strip retailers can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,124 (Kump) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,916 (Valiulis), U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,003 (Gebka) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,422 (Shea). 
   BRIEF SUMMARY OF AN EXAMPLE OF THE INVENTIONS 
   The following is a brief summary of some aspects of the inventions set forth in the appended claims, as described with respect to particular examples of how the inventions might be implemented. This summary, however, is not intended to and should not be used as a substitute for a definition of the boundaries, scope or limits of the inventions as set forth in the claims. 
   The devices shown in the figures and described below in the detailed description provide a retailer with a convenient and inexpensive way to attach a strip retailer to a shelf and to provide an expanded area for signage that may be associated with the products offered on the strip retailer. A pair of panels (formed from a single folded sheet or formed by welding two or more sheets together) are connected by a connection path at a lower part of the panels. The connection path has an opening formed in it for allowing a strip retailer to extend through the opening. An enlarged upper part of the strip retailer engages and his held by the connection between the panels on opposite sides of the opening. Signage may be placed between and is held by the pair of panels. The panels may be attached to a shelf, the side of a shelf or partition or other support structure either by a simple hook, a string, a wire, a plastic wire tie or other fastener extending through a small hole in one or more of the panels, or by a plastic push pin fastener, an adhesive, or by a third panel formed as an extension of the front one of the pair of panels. The third panel should be made of a somewhat rigid material and dimensioned so as to fit securely in to a C-shaped price channel on the edge of a shelf. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a strip retailer held by a sign holder as described and claimed in more detail below; 
       FIG. 2  is an enlarged perspective view of a holder in which two strip retailers are held adjacent to one another; 
       FIG. 3  is an exploded perspective view of a strip retailer being inserted into a sign holder as described and claimed in more detail below; 
       FIG. 4  is a longitudinal partial section taken along line  4 — 4  in  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 5  is a perspective view of a strip retailer and sign holder attached to a shelf by a hook; 
       FIGS. 6 and 7  are enlarged cross-sectional views of a holder held in two different C-shaped price channels by a panel that is an extension of a front panel of the sign holder; 
       FIG. 8  is a perspective view of a combination strip retailer and sign holder having an adhesive strip on its upper rear portion for attachment thereof to a shelf; 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1  shows a sign holder  10  with a strip retailer  12  inserted partially through it to form a holder/strip combination  8 . The strip retailer  12  has an enlarged or widened upper part  14  and a narrower lower part  16  containing a plurality of integral hooks  17 . The front panel  24  is hingedly connected by a connecting path  18  to a rear panel  26 . Similarly, the front panel  24  is hingedly connected to a third panel  28 . The third panel  28  serves as an attachment panel, when the combination  8  is used with a shelf having a C-shaped price channel. As can be seen in more detail from  FIGS. 2 through 4 , the sign holder  10  includes one or more holes  11  formed in the upper part of the front panel  24 . The third panel has a matching hole (or holes)  13  in its upper part. 
   A sign (which may be a cardboard, other sheet or anything capable of showing graphical information) is disposed between the front panel  24  and the rear panel  26  such that the sign covers (i.e., is in front of) the enlarged upper part  14  of the strip retailer  12 . The sign  30  may be inserted at the same time that the strip retailer  12  is inserted into the opening  19 , or may be inserted later, after the sign holder  10  has been attached to a shelf in a store. 
   The connecting path  18 , in the embodiments shown herein, is in the form of a fold or hinge  15  between the front panel  24  and the rear panel  26 . The opening  19  lies along the connecting path  18  such that the path  18  is divided into a first part  20  and a second part  22 . The portions of the connecting path  18  which are disposed on opposite sides of the opening  19  engage the enlarged upper part  14  of the strip retailer  12  after the narrow part  16  of the strip retailer  12  is inserted through the opening  19 . 
     FIGS. 5 through 8  depict ways in which the combination  8  of the sign holder  10  and strip retailer  12  may be attached to a shelf in a store  32 . In  FIG. 5 , a hook  17  passes through the holes  11  and  13  in the front and third panels, respectively. The sign  30  may be inserted after the hook  17  engages the shelf and the sign holder  10  to provide information about the products that are held on the strip retailer  12 . 
     FIG. 6  shows an angled C-shaped price channel  34  on the front edge of a shelf  32 . The third panel  28  has a free, exposed lower edge such that the third panel  28  is a flap capable of being fixedly connected to a C-shaped price channel in an over-center manner. Constructing the combination  8  of material such as heat folded 15 mil PVC will allow the third panel to fixedly hold the sign holder  10  and one or more strip retailers in place as an extension of the shelf  32 . 
   The third panel  28  and the upper hinge  21  cooperate with the C-shaped price channel  34  to securely support the combination holder  8  in place. The lower edge  29  of the rear panel  28  and the upper hinge  21  are preferably slightly longer than the distance between the upper part  33  and lower part  35  of the curved channel  34 , which allows the third panel  28  to be gripped by the channel  34 . Similarly,  FIG. 7  shows a vertically oriented flat C-shaped price channel  36  attached to the front edge of a shelf  32 . Again, the upper hinge  20  fits snugly into the upper part  37  of the channel  36  and the lower part of the third panel  28  engages the lower part  39  of the channel  36  to securely hold the combination holder  8  in place. 
     FIG. 8  depicts a third way of attaching the combination holder  8  to a shelf or other surface. A strip of adhesive  38  is affixed to the exposed side of the third panel  28 . It may be desirable for the adhesive strip to be covered with a removable release liner (not shown), so that several combination holders  8  may be shipped without affixing themselves to each other. 
   The sign holder  10 , which forms a part of the combination holder  8 , is shown in  FIGS. 1 through 8  as being formed of a single folded continuous sheet of 15 mil. PVC, which is well suited for certain applications of the inventions described and claimed herein. However, it should be understood that thinner gauge plastic sheets could also be used. For example, two separate sheets of clear vinyl (approximately 10 mils thick) may be joined along their perimeter (three or all four sides, for example), by a heat, mechanical or solvent welding connection or some combination thereof (or some other joining technique) to form a pouch. A holder made of softer more pliable PVC of a thickness less than about 15 mil could be made of two sheets joined on all four sides and may have a first slot for allowing the insertion of a sign into the space between the sheets. The thickness of the material can range from about 5 mil to about 40 mil and can be either rigid or soft. PVC works well, but other materials, including plastics such as PETG, polyester, polypropylene, could be used. Thickness of the material and decision of soft or rigid PVC is determined by the customer as an choice for look and feel within the retail environment. A second opening, such as the opening  19  in the embodiment of  FIG. 2 , should be formed at or near the lower connecting path between the front and rear sheets. This second opening may be cut or may be left unwelded or otherwise unconnected during the initial connection of the front and rear sheets. In either case the second opening is a discontinuation in the connecting path between the front and rear sheets or panels. The sizes of the upper slot and opening near the lower connecting path should be such that an entire strip retailer can pass through the first slot, and only the narrow clip-bearing part of the strip retailer may fit through the second opening. A hole (perhaps reinforce with a metal ring) with a hook (such as the hook  17  in  FIG. 5 ) would be used to hold the sign holder/strip retailer in place. An opening, similar to the opening  19  along the connection path  18  (as depicted in  FIG. 3 ), may be formed along a lower portion of the clear vinyl pouch. A strip retailer  12 , such as the one shown in  FIGS. 1 through 5  and  8 , may then be inserted through the opening in the bottom of the clear vinyl pouch to provide a sign holder and strip retailer combination similar to the one shown in  FIG. 1  or the one shown in  FIG. 2 . As with the width of the opening  19 , as shown in  FIG. 3 , the lateral dimension of the opening along the connection path between the front and rear sheets should be large enough to allow the narrow portion of the strip retailer to pass through the opening, but should be narrow enough to engage and support an enlarged upper part of the strip retailer. 
   While the invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments which has been shown in the figures and discussed above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous variations, modifications and improvements may be made to the invention described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.