Video cassette display module for slot-wall merchandising

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 071,350, filed Jul. 9, 1987, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a holder/shelf accessory to slot-wall panel merchandising and more particularly to a video cassette display module for such use. Following the success of the video cassette recorder (VCR) in the marketplace, the business of renting and/or selling movies for home viewing has grown phenomenally since 1980. At first, merchandising techniques were often ignored in the scramble for business. Now, as competition has become fierce, video store operators are sharpening their marketing skills in an effort to get greater selection on their shelves but, at the same time, win sales through effective product presentation.

To this end, slot-wall (or slat-wall) is being widely used today because it is attractive and utilizes space efficiently. Slot-wall is basically a four-foot by eight-foot panel of three-quarter inch particle-board (dimensions may vary) with parallel channels, usually T-shaped, routed straight across one dimension and spaced on equal centers over the surface. The purpose of the panel is to form the extended vertical surface of a display wall or other display merchandiser and the routed channels, or "slots", form the female receptacle for display holders/shelves having by design corresponding male interengaging appendages. This merchandising technique is very effective but the less expensive accessories associated with slot-wall and used by video outlets have been less than satisfactory.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Video cassettes are packaged for marketing in individual containers which are decorated exteriorly with promotional material designed to stimulate visually the impulse buying habits of the home-movie market. Often these promotional jackets are placed on display with the package contents (the video cassette) being kept behind the work counters of the store. On the display shelves, the promotional material can be "stocked" side-by-side, like books, with spines only viewable by the buying public or it can be "displayed" with the merchandising jackets showing to their best advantage. The stocking mode gives the store manager maximum product quantity on his/her shelves but the space consuming display mode wins sales.

There are currently, to the inventors' knowledge, three basic means of merchandising video cassettes on slot-wall: the standard shelf, the tray and the video cassette holder. Standard shelves are hand-fabricated by bending sheet plastic on "heat-strips". This weakens the molecular structure of the material at the line of bend, especially in the dimensionally thin stock used in this instance, rendering it fragile. Trays are usually made by plastic extrusion. They are less expensive but tend to warp. The holder, commonly referred to as the "widget", is injection molded plastic and inexpensive. The design tends to be sloppy in its slot mount making contents insecure and leading to considerable breakage. On the standard shelf, one can stock video cassettes much the same as books; i.e. side-by-side with spines only viewable or face-out with a frontal view of the jacket cover showing. A four-foot slot-wall shelf will accommodate, side-by-side, about 30 cassettes maximum --less if any are positioned face-out. In the case of the face-out positioning on standard shelves, the cassette is obscured by its neighbor when viewed from side angle because the viewing plane differs from cassette to cassette. The slot-wall tray will accept video cassettes in the face-out position only with a four-foot tray accommodating about 10 cassettes. The "widget" holds one video cassette obliquely to the vertical plane of the slot-wall at a viewing angle of 45 degrees displaying the spine and a desired portion of the frontal jacket. A four-foot section of slot-wall will accommodate for display about 17 widgets and their contents.

Considering the foregoing, the video store manager's problem is, then, to achieve the right balance between what the writer has called "the stocking mode and the display mode". The inventors feel they have achieved the optimum marriage of these two considerations and have frozen their concept in a superior plastic merchandiser that can be economically mass-produced.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of this invention to reduce the over-all cost of display over conventional methods of slot-wall merchandising in video outlets while improving on the quality of display.

It is another object of this invention to lessen the demands on the time and skill of video store personnel by supplying them with a fool-proof displaying tool.

A further object of this invention is to enable the video store manager to increase the selection or quantity of movies on cassettes in his/her existing facility without jeopardizing the appeal and selling power of merchandising display.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide the merchandiser of video cassettes with a holder/shelf that is stronger and more durable yet inexpensive to produce and to supply.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is an intercongruous or modular holder/shelf accessory to slot-wall merchandisers formed of plastic, injection-molded to dimensions accommodating most video cassette movies for home viewing. The holder/shelf provides surfaces which both support and securely hold a video cassette package either obliquely to the slot-wall at a 45° angle or parallel to the wall in faced out display positions while maintaining a common viewing plane.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To realize on paper the invention set forth in the appended detailed description and claims, drawings are presented conjunctively in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric illustration of two units of the invention mounted contiguously on a vertical surface of slot-wall;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the invention

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawing wherein like reference numerals indicate identical parts in the various views, two identical modules indicated generally at 1A and 1B, are shown in side-by-side relationship mounted on the slot-wall panel 1.

The preferred embodiment of the module is formed of injection-molded plastic with a wall thickness of 0.090 inches, an over-all height of 3.687 inches, an over-all width of 5.625 inches and an over-all depth of 4.125 inches. It will be understood, however, that these dimensions are given by way of example and may be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

On a plane with the uppermost horizontal surface 5 of the module and extending straight back 0.25 inches is a tongue or appendage 4 which then turns up perpendicularly for 0.46 inches. This appendage 4 transverses the full width of the unit at this point. From its base to its top, the overall module unit slims by one-half degree from the perpendicular on both sides. This is to facilitate extraction of the part from the mold during production, as is well known in the art. The appendage interengages with the slot 4A routed into the vertical merchandising panel of slot-wall 1 as may best be seen in FIG. 1. The vertical portion of the appendage 4 extends upward behind the upper lip 2 of the slot 4A where it prevents forward movement of the module. The horizontal portion of the appendage 4 rests on top of the lower lip 3 of the slot 4A and supports the weight of the unit. From the point where the appendage 4 meets with the main body of the module and covering entirely that plane of the unit one would refer to as the side, the plastic forms a right side surface 6 as seen in FIG. 1 which reinforces and stabilizes the module. The rear vertical edge 6A of the side 6 provides support as it rests against the vertical surface of the merchandising panel when in use. Likewise a left side surface 6B is formed and includes a rear vertical edge (not shown) for the same purpose.

The uppermost horizontal surface 5 extends forward from the slot-engaging appendage 4 on a plane form whence it cascades downward forming vertical walls defining recesses. At two forward points, where the angle of descent is five degrees less than perpendicular, the cascade as indicated creates an inclined surface 8 against which video-cassettes 12 can be propped as shown in phantom in FIG. 1. The large, oblique recesses have perpendicular walls 7, 7A, 7B as best viewed in FIGS. 1 and 2. The walls 7 and 7A and 7 and 7B are at right angles to each other. The surfaces of the walls 7, 7A and 7 and 7B form a slot or recess 1.437 inches wide with surface 7 forming the back wall thereof. The wall surfaces 7A and 7B form retaining and spacing walls designed to accommodate a video-cassette 13 being obliquely displayed as shown in phantom in FIG. 1. Further contributing to this task are right and left side buttress tabs 11 located where the planes of the wall surfaces 7A and 7B intersect with the plane D which forms the front wall of the module. These buttress tabs 11 help position and stabilize the video-cassette in the slot for display purposes as may best be seen in plan view in FIG. 2. The edge of the unit between the tabs 11 and the bottom wall 9 between the retaining walls 7A and 7B lie on a common horizontal plane and form the supporting floor upon which the displayed objects will rest.

To appreciate the positioning of the slots in each module it may be helpful to visualize a contiguous row of these oblique display recesses and then dissect the row at right angles at points so placed as to allow, off-centered between the two lines of dissection, one full cassette display lying obliquely from back TO front as may best be seen in FIG. 2. to the right and to the left of this full cassette slot, is located one-half of another identical slot, either the rear half or the forward half, which will find its functional "other half" by crossing the line of row dissection. These "dissection" lines are indicated at E and F on FIG. 2. Thus the units are modular in that each unit contributes to the function of its neighbor in such a way as to double the display capacity of a single unit when it is used in conjunction with other units placed right and left.

Transversing the front portion of the module is a tray 10 measuring 1.625 inches in depth. The floor of the tray is tilted five degrees off the horizontal so that the line of its surface is at right angle to the cascading bulwark wall 8 mentioned earlier. This tray forms a "face-out" display position for a video-cassette, as shown in phantom in FIG. 1, and the five degree tilt assures that the cassette will lean into the unit and not fall forward. The angle of the tray 10 and wall 8 may best be seen in FIG. 4.

The rowed sequence of buttress tabs 11 along the upper forward edge of the module serve a dual purpose. When video-cassettes, such as the cassette 12 in FIG. 1, are displayed in a "face-out" position, the tabs 11 serve as guard-rails for the product. When the video-cassette, such as the cassette 13 in FIG. 1, is displayed obliquely, the tabs serve as spacers and the outer edges stabilize the product on the leading edge of the slot or recess.

The rules of product merchandising dictate that there be visual uniformity of display to the right and to the left in a retail store. To satisfy this requirement the module may be produced with a right-handed and a left-handed version. One version will simply be a mirror-reflection of the other.