Glide

• US 20020179553A1
• Filed: 06/07/2002
• Published: 12/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marmon Foodservice Technologies Incorporated (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Display Technologies, LLC (Leigh M. Rothschild)
• Inventors: Squitieri, Anthony C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,083,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 211/59.2
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 1/12 dispensing from the side of an approximately horizontal stack A47F1/087 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 5/005 Partitions therefore horizontally adjustable A47B57/58; constructional details of drawers A47B88/90

Abstract

A glide (20) includes a base (22), a front member, and a number of walls (26) extending front-to-back. Both the base and the front member are advantageously formed as a number of pieces secured side-by-side to provide expandability. The front member may be secured to the walls via dovetail interaction and different front members may be provided for different wall spacings.

Claims

1. A retail display glide apparatus for holding a plurality of items, comprising:

a base having front, back, left, and right ends, an upper surface for supporting the items, and a bottom surface;

a plurality of wall members, at least some thereof removably installable on the base extending front-to-back so as to cooperate with the base to define a plurality of channels, each channel dimensioned for accommodating an associated front-to-back column of the items; and

a front member installable to the base and to the installed wall members to bound forward extremities of the channels.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the base comprises a molded plastic primary base member and at least one molded plastic auxiliary base member removably assembled side-by-side; and

the front member comprises a molded plastic primary front member and at least one molded plastic auxiliary front member removably assembled side-by-side.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the plurality of items is a plurality of beverage containers selected from the group consisting of plastic bottles, glass bottles, and metal cans.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the front member is a first front member and includes a plurality of wall member-engaging features at substantially a first pitch, first pitch defining an associated pitch of the plurality of channels and wherein the apparatus further comprises:

a second front member having wall member-engaging features similar to the wall member-engaging features of the first front member but spaced at a second pitch, substantially different from the first pitch, and wherein the installed wall members are removable and reinstallable on the base so as to engage the wall member-engaging features of the second front member and define a second plurality of channels for accommodating a second plurality of containers instead of the first plurality of containers, the containers of the second plurality having a substantially different diameter than the containers of the first plurality.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the primary front member includes a plurality of wall member-engaging features at substantially a first pitch, the first pitch defining an associated pitch of a first subplurality of the plurality of channels and wherein each at least one auxiliary front member includes one wall member-engaging feature along a first side of such auxiliary front member.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein each at least one auxiliary front member fronts a channel of a second subplurality of the plurality of channels, the second subplurality at a second pitch substantially different from the first pitch.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each wall member includes top, bottom, front, and rear edges and wherein at least two forward-directed fingers depend from the bottom edge and wherein the wall members are installable on the base by inserting such fingers downward through associated slots in the base and shifting the wall member forward so that an upper surface of each finger engages the bottom surface of the base.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the front edge of each wall member includes a vertically-extending projection, engagable via vertical translation to a complementary channel in the front member.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the front member, when installed to the base and to the installed wall members, has surfaces cooperating with complementary surfaces of the base to prevent a rearward shift of the installed wall members so as to prevent removal of the installed wall members unless the front member is at least partially disinstalled via vertical translation.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the front member includes a plurality of apertures, each aperture associated with one of the channels and effective to allow at least partial viewing of a lead item in the associated column of the associated channel.

13. The kit of claim 1 I wherein:

the primary base member and auxiliary base members are each single pieces of molded plastic each including a plurality of pairs of front and back longitudinal slots;

each wall member is a single piece of molded plastic and includes top, bottom, front, and back edges with a plurality of holes inboard of said edges, a pair of front and back forward-projecting fingers depending from the bottom edge and insertable through an associated pair of the front and back slots to interlock the wall member to the glide base via a subsequent forward translation of the wall member, and a vertically-extending projection along the front edge; and

each front member assembly includes a plurality of vertically-extending channels complementary to the vertically-extending projections to interlock such front member assembly with the installed wall members upon a relative vertical translation.

11. A kit for forming a retail display glide apparatus for holding a plurality of containers, comprising:

a primary base member having front, back, left, and right ends, an upper surface, and a bottom surface;

a plurality of auxiliary base members each having front, back, left, and right ends, an upper surface and a bottom surface, having a width substantially less than a width of the primary base member and configured to be selectively assembled with the primary base member in side-by-side configuration to form a glide base;

a plurality of wall members, at least some thereof being selectively installable on the base extending front-to-back so as to cooperate with the base to define a plurality of channels, each channel for accommodating an associated front-to-back column of the containers, the plurality wall members being so installable alternatively in at least two sets of positions corresponding to two different nominal channel widths; and

at least two front member assembly kits respectively associated with the at least two channel widths, each comprising;

a primary front member having front and back surfaces and top, bottom, left, and right edges; and

a plurality of auxiliary front members, each having front and back surfaces and top, bottom, left, and right edges and configured to be selectively assembled with the primary front member to form a front member assembly, the front member assembly attachable to the base and to the installed wall members so as to bound forward extremities of the channels.

12. The kit of claim 11 wherein each front member assembly, along the back surfaces of its primary and auxiliary front members includes a plurality of concave surface portions respectively aligned with the plurality of channels for accommodating the front container in each associated column.

15. The front member of claim 14 further comprising:

surfaces which, with the front member installed to the base and to the wall members, cooperate with complementary surfaces of the base to prevent a rearward shift of the wall members so as to prevent removal of the wall members unless the front member is at least partially disinstalled via vertical translation.

16. The front member of claim 14 formed as a kit comprising a molded plastic primary front member and at least one molded plastic auxiliary front member removably assemblable side-by-side.

17. The front member of claim 16 wherein each of the molded plastic primary front member and the at least one molded plastic auxiliary front member extend from a first side to a second side and have:

at such first side, one of the vertically-extending dovetail channels in the series thereof and a first interengagement feature; and

at such second side, a second interengagement feature dimensioned to engage the first interengagement feature of an adjacent one of the primary and auxiliary front members.

18. The front member of claim 17 wherein the first and second interengagement features are, respectively, dovetail channels and dovetail projections.

19. The front member of claim 18 further comprising an adapter having first and second opposed dovetail channels dimensioned so that the first channel of the adapter may engage the second interengagement feature at the second side of the assembled front member and the second channel of the adapter provides the vertically-extending dovetail channel which engages the one of the plurality of wall members at the second side of the plurality of wall members.

14. A front member for a retail display glide apparatus for holding a plurality of items, said apparatus comprising:

a base having front, back, left, and right ends, an upper surface for supporting the items, and a bottom surface; and

a plurality of wall members, in at least one condition on the base extending front-to-back so as to cooperate with the base to define a plurality of channels, each channel dimensioned for accommodating an associated front-to-back column of the items;

the front member installable to the base and to the installed wall members and comprising;

surfaces bounding forward extremities of the channels; and

a series of vertically-extending dovetail channels, engagable via vertical translation to complementary projections along front portions of the wall members.