Patent ID: 7036666

Claim:
A beverage tray for holding a quantity of containers of beverage, said tray comprising: a tray floor having a transverse direction and a longitudinal direction, opposite side edges and opposite end edges, a top surface and a bottom surface and a plurality of spaced apart beverage container seating areas distributed over the top surface; upstanding side and end walls extending upwardly from the floor and around the periphery of the floor for confining beverage containers supported on the floor; and spaced rectilinear detent means projecting downwardly from the underside of the tray floor a predetermined distance and presenting pairs of opposed, parallel, straight detent surfaces forming closure receiving areas for receiving the tops of beverage containers in a sub-adjacent tray when a plurality of trays holding containers of beverage are stacked on top of one another, said detent means forming unimpeded transverse and longitudinal channels that open through adjacent side and end edges of the tray, said detent means and channels cooperating with the tops of said beverage containers to impede free sliding movement of one tray over the tops of the beverage containers so that the trays can be stacked together in stable relationship, but at the same time enabling said one tray to be moved transversely or longitudinally with respect to the sub-adjacent tray when a laterally directed force is applied to said one tray to remove it from the stack of trays.