Patent Document

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/296,343 entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Providing a Bank of Freezers with Enhanced Viewing Characteristics” and filed Jun. 6, 2001, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to improved methods and apparatus for displaying frozen foods or other products displayed in freezers, dairy products and other items typically displayed in coolers, and like products requiring refrigeration displayed in refrigeration units to potential customers. More particularly, the present invention addresses techniques for creating a bank of freezers, coolers or other refrigeration units with advantageous lines of sight and improved clarity of viewability. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The warehouse shopping experience has become both increasingly common and popular. A typical store providing such an experience has a relatively large floor plan or square footage. It also stocks a wide range of products which are often sold in bulk at reduced prices. As a result, a shopper instead of making separate trips to a department store, a drug store and a grocery store, for example, may advantageously make a single visit to his or her nearest Sam&#39;s Club™ store, for example. Rather than buying a four pack of toilet paper or a pound of hamburger at a premium per unit price, the shopper might buy a twenty pack of toilet tissue or a ten or more pound package of hamburger at significantly lower per unit prices. 
     In such environments, to the end of meeting customers&#39; demands for frozen foods and other refrigerated items, it has been previously known to create relatively large banks of freezers in which glass display doors are arranged side by side with product display shelving arranged behind the doors and additional restocking shelving arranged above them to store products used to restock the freezers. This arrangement of shelves above the freezers facilitates rapid restocking of the freezers. With the restock storage arranged above the freezers, the height of the bank may be about 15 feet high so that it is impossible for a customer to see over the units. In these arrangements, forklifts to deliver product for restocking can enter at one end of each freezer, cooler, or refrigeration unit with an open area between the shelves and behind the doors which is wide enough to allow the forklifts to travel into the freezer or cooler to deliver restock items to the appropriate location. 
     A number of problems with such arrangements have been identified by the present inventors. Where a prior art arrangement of freezers employs several large rectangular freezers or coolers, one unit may block a customer&#39;s line of sight so that the customer does not become aware of other buying opportunities if he or she does not make a conscious effort to go up and down each aisle or row. Also, a limited number of end doors and end product locations are provided by existing rectangular arrangements which limits a store&#39;s ability to showcase to potential customers an item or items in high traffic, high visibility areas. Further, depending upon lighting conditions, a very long bank of glass doors all arranged in a straight line may produce a high level of glare when a customer attempts to look down the aisle at an angle so that missed sales opportunities result. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To the end of addressing such problems while preserving the advantageous aspects of existing arrangements as to storage of products for restocking, ready access to shelving for restocking and the like, a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a relatively small footprint bank of freezers or coolers having multiple curved or angled walls of freezer or cooler doors. The overall bank of freezers or coolers advantageously has improved lines of sight. When compared with typical prior art approaches, it also includes an additional number of freezer, cooler, or other refrigeration units access doors which may have the higher visibility traditionally only provided by end units at the end of a row or aisle. Also, the angling of the walls of the freezers and coolers help to funnel customers, from a focal point of customer interest at the end of an aisle, down the aisle so that increased customer traffic and increased sales result. These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the drawings and the Detailed Description which follow. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows an overall layout of a store incorporating a freezer or cooler bank in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 provides a more detailed view of the freezer or cooler bank of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the freezer or cooler bank of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 shows details of a first and a second freezer or cooler of the bank of FIG. 1 from a point approximately located along the line of sight A—A of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 5 shows details of first, second, and third freezers or coolers from a point approximately located along the line of sight B—B of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 6 shows details of second and third freezers or coolers from a point approximately located along the line of sight C—C of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 7 shows details of first, second, and third freezers or coolers from a point approximately located along the line of sight D—D of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 8 shows details of first, second, and third freezers or coolers from a point approximately located along the line of sight E—E of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 9 shows three rectangular arrays of freezers with lines of sight A′—A′ through E′—E′ for purposes of comparison; and 
     FIG. 10 shows an alternative second embodiment of a freezer or cooler bank in accordance with the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     FIG. 1 shows an overall store floorplan  100  including a bank of freezers  110  in accordance with the present invention. The bank of freezers  110  includes three curved or angled freezers or coolers  120 ,  130 , and  140 , respectively. While it will be understood that each unit  120 ,  130 , or  140  can be a freezer, a cooler, any other refrigeration unit or some combination thereof, the discussion which follows for the sake of simplicity will largely address the units as freezers. Each of the units includes at least one portion angled with respect to an immediately adjoining portion at an angle substantially different from 90°. As seen in FIG. 1, the freezers  120 ,  130 , and  140  are freestanding and the ends  122 ,  132 , and  142 , respectively, are adjacent a C-shaped cooler  150  to form an overall freezer and cooler storage area with a large volume, a large number of doors, and a relatively small footprint. In a presently preferred first embodiment, the footprint of the bank or array of freezers  110  is approximately 9,500 square feet out of an overall square footage of over 150,000 square feet for store floor plan  100  for a Sam&#39;s Club™, or the like store. 
     FIG. 2 shows further details of the bank of freezers  110  of FIG.  1 . As seen in FIG. 2, each of the freezers  120 ,  130 , and  140 , respectively, is formed from a plurality of individual storage compartments and doors  124 ,  134 ,  144 , arranged as seen in FIG.  2 . In the arrangement shown, each of the freezers has angled or curved portions to enhance viewability of products by shoppers as addressed further below. At the ends  122 ,  132 , and  142 , doors  125 ,  135 , and  145  are provided to provide access for restocking of the respective freezers. In a warehouse club type of store, sufficient room is provided for a forklift to drive in between the interior of individual freezers in a known fashion. 
     In a presently preferred embodiment, the entirety of the interior of the freezers  120  and  140  is cooled as a single unit by cold air piped to the unit from a cooling unit outside the store. For the freezer  130 , a further insulating door and wall  137  separates a frozen food section  138  from an ice cream section  139 . The ice cream section is cooled to a lower or colder temperature than the frozen food section  138 . 
     This arrangement is exemplary of the placement of a popular item such as ice cream on the end of a freezer and aisle where it will attract customer attention and hopefully draw customers down the aisles on either side. As discussed in greater detail below, the angled ends of freezers  120  and  140  closest to the ice cream section  139  of freezer  130  present many glass doors through which a customer can more clearly see additional products of possible interest, thus hopefully drawing the customer&#39;s interest and feet down the aisle. 
     In a presently preferred embodiment, freezer  120  has a width from point  201  to point  202  of nineteen feet and ten inches. The spacing between point  202  of freezer  120  and point  203  of freezer  130  is sixteen feet. The spacing between points  204  and  205  is fourteen feet and three inches. Freezer  130  has a width from point  203  to point  206  of twenty-eight feet. The spacing between points  206  and  207  of freezers  130  and  140  is sixteen feet and one inch. The width of freezer  140  between points  207  and  208  is nineteen feet and ten inches. The spacing between point  209  of freezer  130  and point  210  of freezer  140  is fourteen feet and three inches. 
     Freezers  120  and  140  have 50 doors each and freezer  130  has 37 doors. Cooler  150  has a first cooler section with 35 doors and a dairy cooler section having 13 doors. Point  212  of freezer  140  and point  213  of cooler  150  are spaced sixteen feet and one inch apart. Point  214  and point  215  of freezers  140  and  130 , respectively, are preferably spaced thirteen feet and eight inches. Points  216  and  217  of freezers  130  and  120 , respectively, are spaced by thirteen feet and eleven inches. Points  218  and  219  of freezer  120  and cooler  150 , respectively, are spaced by thirteen feet and five inches. As will be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art, other spacings and numbers of doors will of course be possible. A second exemplary embodiment is described in detail below in connection with FIG.  10 . 
     As seen in FIGS.  3 — 8 , the freezers  120 ,  130 , and  140  are part of overall units having a front, facing, or housing that extends substantially above floor  160 . In a presently preferred embodiment, this housing extends approximately fifteen feet about floor  160 . The housing contains the cold air cooling the individual freezer display shelves or compartments. It also conceals additional restocking shelving. This restock shelving stores product to restock the display areas of the freezer display shelves located below the restock shelves in a known manner. The height of these units makes line of sight an important design consideration because unlike a typical retail environment, such as the jewelry counter of a department store where a customer can see over one display to another, a customer at point “X” in FIGS. 2 and 3 cannot see the freezers  120  and  130  as his or her view is completely blocked by the array  140 . 
     FIG. 3 shows an overall perspective view of the bank of freezers  110 . FIG. 4 shows freezer  120  and freezer  130  viewed from a point located approximately along a line of sight A—A of FIG.  2 . FIGS.  4 — 8  are taken from digital photos of a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention. The angle of view in these figures is the angle of view of the digital camera. As seen in FIG. 4, freezer doors  126  and  127  of freezer  120 , as well as doors  136  of freezer  130  can be readily seen. By contrast, as seen for the bank of refrigerated units  800 , shown in FIG. 9, which is comprised of equal length freezers  820  and  830  and cooler  840 , line A′ and A′ passes through the freezer  830 . The corner of freezer  830  cuts off much of any potential view of array  840 . When a customer looks down the aisle between freezer  830  and cooler  840  from a point at the end of the aisle, such as point Y, the angle is such that glare may make it not possible to see what is behind the doors. 
     FIG. 5 shows freezers  120 ,  130  and  140  viewed from a point located approximately along a line of sight B—B of FIG.  2 . Freezer doors  128  of freezer  120 , as well as doors  137  and  138  of freezer  130  and doors  146  of freezer  140  can be readily seen. By contrast, as seen for the bank of freezers  800  of FIG. 8, any doors on end  822  of freezer  820  will be seen at a glancing angle at best when viewed from a point along line of sight B′—B′ with an angle of view similar to that illustrated in FIG.  5 . 
     FIG. 6 shows freezers  120  and  130  viewed from a point approximately located along a line of sight C—C of FIG.  2 . 
     FIG. 7 shows freezers  120 ,  130 , and  140  viewed from a point approximately located along a line of sight D—D of FIG.  2 . 
     FIG. 8 shows freezers  120 ,  130 , and  140  from a point approximately located along a line of sight E—E of FIG.  2 . 
     FIG. 10 illustrates a bank of freezers  1010  in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Bank of freezers  1010  includes three curved or angled freezers or coolers  1020 ,  1030 , and  1040 , respectively. While it will be understood that each unit  1020 ,  1030 , or  1040  can be a freezer, a cooler, any other refrigeration unit or some combination thereof, unit  1020  is preferably a cooler with 37 doors, unit  1030  is a freezer with 40 doors, and unit  1040  is a freezer with 50 doors. Each of the units includes at least one portion angled with respect to an immediately adjoining portion at an angle substantially different from 90°. 
     Each of the units  1020 ,  1030 , and  1040 , respectively, is formed from a plurality of individual storage compartments and doors  1024 ,  1034 ,  1044 , arranged as seen in FIG.  10 . In the arrangement shown, each of the freezers has angled or curved portions to enhance viewability of products by shoppers as addressed in detail above. At the ends  1022 ,  1032 , and  1042 , doors  1025 ,  1035 , and  1045  are provided to provide access for restocking of the respective freezers. In a warehouse club type of store, sufficient room is provided for a forklift to drive in between the interior of individual freezers in a known fashion. In a presently preferred embodiment, the entirety of the interior of each of the cooler  1020  and the freezers  1030  and  1040  is cooled as a single unit by cold air piped to the unit from a cooling unit outside the store. 
     While the present invention is disclosed in a presently preferred context, it will be recognized that the teachings of the present invention may be variously embodied consistent with the disclosure and claims. By way of example, the present invention is disclosed in connection with specifically preferred embodiments in which the inventive freezer bank is adapted to a warehouse store or club, such as Sam&#39;s Club™, for example. It will be recognized that the present invention may be variously adapted to other environments presenting the same or similar problems and to which the present advantageous solutions will be readily applicable by those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the present teachings. Further, while specific exemplary details of presently preferred freezers are provided, it will be recognized that other freezers, coolers, or refrigeration units can be utilized as suited to a store environment.

Technology Category: 1