Methods for displaying packaging bags

Abstract

A method of displaying a plurality of packaging bags includes a step of providing a first display region and a second display region on each of the packaging bags. The first display region shows a part of generic information of products contained in the packaging bags to be displayed in a hanging-down region in a compartment of a display rack. The second display shows specific information of the corresponding products in each of the plurality of packaging bags. The method further includes the step of hanging the packaging bags in the hanging-down region at positions where the parts of generic information of the packaging bags hung together form the complete general information.

Description

This application claims priority to Japanese patent application serial number 2004-250185, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to methods of displaying packaging bags, and in particular to methods of displaying packaging bags on a display rack to which the packaging bags are mounted in a hanging-down manner.

2. Description of the Related Art

In general, in large stores and specialty shops, a relatively large width display rack is divided in order to provide a plurality of booths where different kinds of products may be displayed. Each of the booths has a hanging-down section where a plurality of hooks are arranged in a row so that a plurality of packaging bags containing products can be displayed while the packaging bags are hanging down in the hanging-down section. A display panel for indicating the type of displayed products may be disposed on the upper side of each booth. For example, characters, such as “bolts,” may be marked on the display panel so that a customer could readily recognize that bolts are displayed in the booth positioned below the display panel. Such a display panel is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-68311.

However, the above display method requires relatively troublesome operations for displaying the products. In general, the display panel is made of a large plate-shaped member in order to enable the recognition of the products by a customer who may be located far away from the display panel. Therefore, it is very troublesome to place such a large display panel on the display rack. In addition, the large display panel may ultimately reduce the space available for displaying the products.

Further, it is necessary to display the packaging bags at predetermined positions by hanging the packaging bags from the hooks. In general, store personnel may in turn hang the packaging bags at the predetermined positions by referencing the product information noted on the packaging bags. However, such product information may be noted on only a limited portion of the packaging bag. Therefore, if some of the packaging bags have been hung at inappropriate positions, it is not likely that the store personnel would readily realize such circumstances.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to teach improved methods of displaying packaging bags, which methods enable store personnel to easily display the packaging bags on display racks.

In one aspect of the present teachings, methods are taught of displaying a plurality of packaging bags on a hanging-down region defined in a section of a display rack. The method includes the step of providing a first display region and a second display region on each of the packaging bags. The first display region shows a part of the generic information for the products contained within the packaging bags to be displayed in the section. The second display shows specific information for the products. The methods further include the step of hanging the packaging bags in the hanging-down region at positions where the various parts of the generic information of the hung-down packaging bags together form the completed generic information.

Here, the term “generic information” is used to mean information that is general to the products contained in the plurality of packaging bags. For example, the generic information may be a pictorial image of the product or a character string indicative of the name of the product. The specific information may be the particular configuration, material, reference size, etc. of the product. The first and second regions may be provided directly on the packaging bag or may be provided on a separate member that is attached to the packaging bag. The products may be fasteners such as screws, bolts, nuts, pins, and nails; fastener related parts such as washers; machine or architectural parts such as chains and wires; or materials such as pipes, bars, and plates.

With the above methods, the displayed packaging bags themselves may provide the completed generic information for the products. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a separate display panel showing generic information. Because no work is required for positioning a separate display panel, the total amount of work for displaying the packaging bags may be simplified.

In addition, because the packaging bags are hung down from the hanging-down region of the display rack such the packaging bags form the complete generic information, the store personnel can easily recognize the improper positioning of the packaging bags in the event that the complete generic information has not been formed. As a result, an accurate positioning operation of the packaging bags can be reliably performed.

In one embodiment, the generic information is a pictorial image of the product. The specific information is a reference size of the product.

In another embodiment, the hanging-down step includes the step of mounting hooks in the hanging down region and engaging the packaging bags with the corresponding hooks.

In a further embodiment, the methods further include the step of coloring a part of the generic information of the first display region with a color indicative of the type of product.

In a further embodiment, the methods further include the step of providing a colored region surrounding at least a part of the specific information. The colored region may be colored with a color indicative of the configuration of the product.

In another aspect of the present teachings, a combination of a plurality of packaging bags is taught. Each of the packaging bags has a first display region. The first display region shows a part of a complete sign indicative of the type of products contained within the packaging bags. The various parts of the complete sign of the first display regions together form the complete sign when the packaging bags are arranged at predetermined positions relative to each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a representative packaging bag; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a representative display rack showing packaging bags displayed on the display rack according to a representative method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Each of the additional features and teachings disclosed above and below may be utilized separately or in conjunction with other features and teachings to provide improved methods for displaying packaging bags. Representative examples of the present invention, which examples utilize many of these additional features and teachings both separately and in conjunction with one another, will now be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. This detailed description is merely intended to teach a person of skill in the art further details for practicing preferred aspects of the present teachings and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Only the claims define the scope of the claimed invention. Therefore, combinations of features and steps disclosed in the following detailed description may not be necessary to practice the invention in the broadest sense, and are instead taught merely to particularly describe representative examples of the invention. Moreover, various features of the representative examples and the dependent claims may be combined in ways that are not specifically enumerated in order to provide additional useful embodiments of the present teachings.

A representative embodiment will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. In these figures, cross-hatching is used to represent a color. In addition, different cross-hatching is used to represent different colors. Therefore, the regions with different cross-hatchings are colored with different shades of colors.

(Representative Packaging Bag)

A representative packaging bag 30 will be first described with reference to FIG. 1. The packaging bag 30 includes a display member 14 and a bag body 24. The bag body 24 has an opening (not shown) and may be formed from a flat tubular film that is welded around a peripheral portion except for a portion corresponding to the opening. Screws 28, for example, are shown as being placed within the bag body 24.

The display member 14 is made of a flat sheet-type member and is folded into two parts so as to clamp the bag body 24 in order to cover the opening of the bag body 24. A front portion 10, which is one of the folded parts of the display member 14, is shown in FIG. 1. A back portion (not shown), which is the other of the folded parts, is positioned on the backside in FIG. 1. The front portion 10 and the back portion are respectively bonded to the front surface and the back surface of the bag body 24 by adhesive. The front portion 10 may have a first display region 15 and a second display region 19.

The front portion 10 also may have printed information with regard to the screws 28. The printed information may include a character array (e.g., “M3×30”) that is arranged in a horizontal direction at a substantially central position of the front portion 10 and is indicative of the reference size of the screw 28. The printed information may also include a pictorial image 28a of the screw 28 positioned on the upper right region of the front portion 10.

The first display region 15 may have a rectangular configuration surrounding the character array “M3×30” and is colored with a first color related to the screw 28. In addition, a character portion “M3” of the character string “M3×30” is surrounded by a circular region 15a colored with a second color that is different from the first color and is related to the part “M3” of the reference size.

The second display region 19 is a region of the front portion 10 other than the first display region 15 and may include an upper region 20 and a lower region 22 separated by the first display region 15. A colored partial pictorial image 20a in this example including three curved lines and a colored partial pictorial image 22a including two curved lines are respectively formed on the upper and lower regions 20 and 22 and constitute parts of a pictorial image 43 of the screw 28 shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the pictorial image 43 may be completed by a combination of the partial pictorial images 20a and 22a formed on the second display regions 19 of a number of packaging bags 30 that are displayed at predetermined positions on a representative display rack 60 shown in FIG. 2 as will be hereinafter described. Therefore, the pictorial images 20a and 22a on the upper and lower regions 20 and 22 may vary according to the type of products contained within the packaging bag 30 and may also vary according to the position the packaging bag 30 is to be displayed on the display rack 60.

As shown in FIG. 2, a perforated line 16 (i.e., a tearable line) is formed on a part proximate to the upper edge of the front portion 10 and extends across the front portion 10 in a horizontal direction. Therefore, the back portion of the display member 14 may be separated from the front portion 10 by tearing off the back portion along the perforated line 16 so that the customer can open the packaging bag 30. The customer can then access the screws 28 contained within the bag body 24 via the upper opening. A through hole 18 is formed in the upper end portion of the display member 14 and is positioned centrally with respect to the width of the display member 14. The through hole 18 is provided for engagement to a hook 50 that will be explained later.

(Representative Display Rack)

The representative display rack 60 shown in FIG. 2 generally includes a flat plate-type vertical display panel 40 and a horizontal shelf 48. A plurality of vertical partitions 42 may be attached to the display panel 40 and extend perpendicular to the display panel 40. A booth may be defined between two adjacent partitions 42, although only one booth is shown in FIG. 2. One of the two partitions 42 defining the booth may have a colored region 42a indicative of the type of products (e.g., such as screws or bolts in this representative embodiment) displayed in the booth. In addition, pictorial images of the various kinds of screws or bolts displayed in the booth may be printed on the one of the two partitions 42. In this representative embodiment, five different pictorial images 42b1, 42b2, 42b3, 42b4, and 42b5, of screws and bolts are printed and arranged along the vertical direction. In addition, the pictorial image 42b1 disposed at the uppermost position corresponds to the screws 28 contained within the packaging bags 30.

The front surface of the display panel 40 of the booth is defined as a hanging down region 46, where a plurality of packaging bags 30 are hung down at predetermined positions. To this end, a plurality of hooks 50 are mounted on the front surface of the display panel 40 and are arranged in horizontal and vertical rows. In this representative embodiment, the hooks 50 are arranged in six horizontal rows and seven vertical rows.

(Representative Method of Displaying Packaging Bags)

In order to display the packaging bags 30, retail personnel may engage the packaging bags 30 one after another at predetermined positions while the front portion 10 of the display member 14 of each packaging bag 30 is oriented to the front side with respect to the front surface of the display panel 40. The predetermined positions are the positions where the partial pictorial images 20a and 22a printed on the second display regions 19 of the packaging bags 30 together form the complete pictorial image 43 of the screw 28 (however, the screw 28 has the head configuration shown in 42b2). In this representative embodiment, the partial pictorial images 20a and 22a of the packaging bag 30 shown in FIG. 1 corresponds to an image of the end portion of a shank of the screw 28 and the packaging bag 30 is to be positioned at the third vertical row, as counted from the left side in FIG. 2, and at the bottom horizontal row. Therefore, the hook 50, which is correspondingly positioned at the third vertical row at the bottom horizontal row, engages the packaging bag 30 as shown in FIG. 2. Other hooks 50 may also engage the remaining packaging bags 30 (having different partial images of the screw 28 or having no partial image of the screw 28) at predetermined positions in order to complete the pictorial image 43 and the background image as shown in FIG. 2.

According to the representative embodiment, the displayed packaging bags 30 together form the pictorial image 43 of the screw 28 (configured as 42b2). Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a separate display panel showing the products contained within the packaging bags 30. As a result, the necessary work required to completely display the packaging bags 30 may be minimized. In addition, the display space can be efficiently used because the display space may not be narrowed by the provision of a separate display panel.

In addition, the display member 14 of the packaging bag 30 has the second display region 19 displaying parts of the pictorial image 43 of the screw 28 in addition to the first display region 15 for the information of the reference size of the screws 28. Because, the packaging bags 30 may be displayed such that the partial pictorial images of the packaging bags 30 together form the entire pictorial image 43, retail personnel can easily determine whether or not the packaging bags 30 are correctly positioned by visually judging whether or not the pictorial image 43 has been completed. As a result, the operation of positioning the packaging bags 30 can be facilitated.

(Possible Modifications of Representative Embodiment)

The present invention may not be limited to the above representative embodiment, but may be modified in various ways.

(1) The positional relationship between the first display region 15 and the second display region 19 of the display member 14 may be suitably changed. For example, the first display region 15 and the second display region 19 may be respectively defined by a lower half region and an upper half region as viewed in FIG. 1 of the front portion 10. Alternatively, the front portion 10 may include only the second display region 19, while the first display region 15 is defined on the back portion of the display member 14.

(2) The first display region 15 and the second display region 19 may be directly printed on the bag body 24 so that the display member 14 can be eliminated. In such a case, the opening of the bag body 24 may be closed by a fusion bonding process. This arrangement is advantageous because no display member may be accidentally removed from the bag body 24 during the work of displaying the packaging bags 30.

(3) Although the second display region 19 displays the partial images of the pictorial image 43 of the screw 28 in the above representative embodiment, the second display region 19 may display parts of a word (e.g., “SCREWS”) in addition to or instead of the partial images of the pictorial image 43. In addition, together the packaging bags 30 only form one pictorial image 43 in the above representative embodiment. However, a plurality of pictorial images 43 may be formed. Alternatively, a plurality of pictorial images of screws or bolts having different configurations and/or sizes may be formed. For example, the pictorial images 42b1 to 42b5 printed on the partition 42 may be formed across the arrangement of packaging bags 30.

(4) The portion of the second display region 19, other than the partial pictorial images 20a and 22a, is not printed upon and consequently exhibits the material color of the display member 14. However, such a portion may be colored with a different shade of color than the color of the pictorial images 20a and 22a. Otherwise, the partial pictorial images 20a and 22 may also exhibit the material color of the display member 14, except for the curved lines (i.e., the solid lines of the pictorial image).

(5) Information with regard to the correct display position may be printed on the packaging bag 30. For example, the vertical rows of the hooks 50 may be designated as rows A, B, C, etc., from the left column as viewed in FIG. 2. In addition, the horizontal rows of the hooks 50 may be designated as rows 1, 2, 3, etc., from the top row. Therefore, the position of the packaging bag 30 shown in FIG. 1 may be designated as “C-6.” By printing the designation “C-6” on the packaging bag 30, the store personnel can correctly hang the packaging bag 30 on the corresponding hook 50 with reference to the designation “C-6” on the packaging bag 30. All the packaging bags 30 may have the printed designations of their positions. As a result, the store personnel can correctly position all the packaging bags 30, including those having no portion of the pictorial image 43.

(6) The positions of the through holes 18 of the packaging bags 30 may be differently located relative to each other (e.g., closer to or farther from the top edge of the packaging bag 30). More specifically, the positions of the through holes 18 may be determined so as to correspond to the predetermined positions of the packaging bags 30 to be hung on the display rack 60. For example, if the positions of the through holes 18 of the packaging bags 30 to be displayed in the third vertical row shown in FIG. 2 are upward of the positions of the through holes 18 of the remaining packaging bags 30, the store personnel can readily recognize improper display positions of these packaging bags 30. Thus, if the packaging bag 30 shown in FIG. 1 has been engaged with a hook 50 that is positioned in the second vertical row and at the second horizontal row from the bottom, the lower end of the packaging bag 30 shown in FIG. 1 may extend downward beyond the lower ends of other the packaging bags 30 displayed in the same horizontal row. Therefore, the retail personnel can readily recognize the improper positioning of the packaging bag 30 shown in FIG. 1, even if the intended packaging bag 30 to be displayed at the second vertical row and at the second horizontal row from the bottom has partial images 20a and 22a of the screw 28 that are confusingly similar to those of the partial images 20a and 22a of the packaging bag 30 shown in FIG. 1.

(7) An additional circular region may be printed so as to surround the head of the pictorial image 28a printed on the front portion 10. The additional circular region may be colored with a different color from the shade of color of the first display region 15 and may be indicative of the configuration of the head of the screw 28. Also, the pictorial image 43 may have an additional circular region colored with the same different color. In addition, a dot(s) indicative of the price of the screws 28 may be printed on the display member 14.

(8) The above representative embodiment has been described in relating to the display of the packaging bags 30 containing the same screws 28 in the booth. However, packaging bags 30 containing different products may be displayed in the same booth. For example, the hanging-down region 46 may be separated into an upper region and a lower region respectively including three horizontal rows of hooks 50. The packaging bags 30 containing screws or bolts may be displayed at the upper region, while the packaging bags 30 containing nuts (engageable with the screws or bolts contained within the packaging bags 30 displayed at the upper region) may be displayed at the lower region. The packaging bags 30 in the upper region may together form a pictorial image of the screw or bolt, while the packaging bags 30 in the lower region may together form a pictorial image of the nut. Preferably, the pictorial image of the screw or the bolt and the pictorial image of the nut may be colored with the same shade of color. Then the customer would be able to readily recognize that the screws or bolts are engageable with the nuts.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a plurality of packaging bags in a hanging-down region defined in a section of a display rack, comprising:

providing a first display region and a second display region on each of the plurality of packaging bags, wherein the first display region shows a part of generic information of products contained within the plurality of packaging bags, and wherein the second display shows specific information of corresponding products contained within a corresponding packaging bag; and

hanging the each of the plurality of packaging bags in the hanging-down region at positions where the parts of generic information of each of the plurality of packaging bags hung together form a complete generic information.

2. The method as in claim 1;

wherein the complete generic information is a pictorial image of the products contained within the plurality of packaging bags.

3. The method as in claim 1;

wherein the specific information is a reference size of the corresponding products contained within the corresponding packaging bag.

4. The method as in claim 1;

wherein the hanging step further comprises mounting hooks in the hanging-down region and engaging each of the plurality of packaging bags with the appropriate corresponding hook.

5. The method as in claim 1,

further comprising coloring the part of the generic information of the first display region with a color indicative of a type of the products contained within the plurality of packaging bags.

6. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a colored region surrounding at least a part of the specific information, wherein the colored region is colored with a color indicative of a configuration of the corresponding products contained within the corresponding packaging bag.

7. A method of displaying a plurality of packaging bags on a display rack, comprising:

providing a first display region on each of the plurality of packaging bags, wherein the first display region shows a part of a complete sign indicative of a type of products contained in the plurality of packaging bags, and

positioning each of the plurality of packaging bags in the display rack such that the parts of the complete sign of each of the plurality of packaging bags hanging down together form the complete sign.

8. The method as in claim 7;

wherein the complete sign is a pictorial image of the type of products contained within the plurality of packaging bags.

9. The method as in claim 7;

wherein the complete sign is a word describing the type of products contained within the plurality of packaging bags.

10. The method as in claim 9;

wherein the complete sign further comprises a pictorial image of the type of products contained within the plurality of packaging bags.

11. The method as in claim 7;

wherein the complete sign is at least one pictorial image of a configuration of the type of products contained within the plurality of packaging bags.

12. A combination comprising:

a plurality of packaging bags each having a first display region, wherein the first display region shows a part of a complete sign indicative of a type of products contained within the plurality of packaging bags, and

wherein the parts of the complete sign of the first display regions form the complete sign when the plurality of packaging bags are arranged together at predetermined positions relative to each other.

13. The combination as in claim 12;

wherein the complete sign is a pictorial image of the products contained within the plurality of packaging bags.

14. The combination as in claim 12,

wherein each of the plurality of packaging bags further includes a second display region showing product information with regard to a size of corresponding products contained within a corresponding packaging bag.

15. The combination as in claim 14,

further including a colored region surrounding at least a part of the product information,

wherein the colored region is colored with a color determined to indicate a reference size of the corresponding products contained within the corresponding packaging bag.

16. The combination as in claim 12,

wherein each of the plurality of packaging bags further includes a second complete pictorial image of corresponding products contained within a corresponding packaging bag printed on the corresponding packaging bag.