The present invention relates to a knockdown display stand for use in merchandising products, and more particularly to a portable display stand designed for compact storage and easy relocation from one store to another.
In the merchandising of a number of products such as packaged, canned or bottled food or drink products, the products are typically displayed on the tiered shelves of a display stand at a supermarket or other retail store. Display stands or racks of such a type, frequently, do not belong to retail stores, but belong to the wholesalers or the manufacturers of the displayed merchandise. As a result, relocation of a display stand from one store to another is often required to efficiently utilize the same display stand in number of stores. Also, since the number of items displayed at a store fluctuates from week to week, storage of additional or unnecessary shelves at the store may be required. For convenience of relocation and storage, knockdown or collapsible structure of a display stand has been an important factor.
Among the prior art, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,121,496 and 3,523,694 disclose display stands which can be knocked down or collapsed easily into compact units, respectively. These display stands include basket-type shelves, each being of a preassembled structure having built-in posts or spacer members adapted to be vertically extended between two shelves. Due to their outdated appearance and inefficiency in the manufacturing, display stands of these types are not in widespread use.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,467,927 and 4,930,643 describe knockdown display stands formed, typically, of molded plastics. These display stands include tray-shaped shelves and separate posts designed to be positioned between the shelves. Each shelf is provided with integrally formed sockets for releasably receiving the ends of the posts, and the display stand may be conveniently taken apart. One disadvantage of such display stands is that upon disassembly, it is not easy to keep the parts for a display stand together in organized condition. This can result in loss of some of the parts, the posts in particular, of a display stand during "knock down" relocation, or "knock down" storage. Further, a box or other container must be found for holding the parts.
What is needed, therefore, is a display stand for merchandising products. Such a display stand should be efficiently manufacturable, capable of being knocked down into a compact unit, and easy to keep in organized condition upon disassembly.