GB2561520A - Shop-a-box carrier bag free shopping system - Google Patents

Abstract

A shopping system for supermarket shopping comprising a plurality of collapsible boxes that can be stacked, and a shopping trolley/cart for supporting said boxes. Preferably the boxes are made from a food grade polypropylene, and when not in use the boxes can collapse to form a flat pack. The boxes may include a pair of folding carrying handles to allow the box to be used as an alternative to a conventional shopping basket. The shopping cart is a flatbed cart constructed from a metal mesh welded to a metal tubular frame, mounted on casters. Alternatively the cart may be made from carbon fiber. The length of the cart can be extended or reduced dependent upon the number of boxes that are being used; and may be adapted to have a child seat and or disabled adaptations. The boxes are used with the shopping cart to hold items whilst a user is shopping. Once payment has been made at the checkout, the boxes can be re-loaded and used to transport the shopping. Alternatively the boxes may be used as re-useable home deliver boxes. The sides and ends of the box may be used for advertising and sponsorship.

Description

(71) Applicant(s):

Chris Robinson

17, Fairview Close, Hythe, Southampton, SO45 5EX, United Kingdom

Stephen Valentine

Lodge Drive, Dibden Purlieu, Southampton, SO45 4LX, United Kingdom (72) Inventor(s):

Adrian Lewis (74) Agent and/or Address for Service:

Shopperbox Systems Ltd

Fairview Close, Hythe, Southampton, SO45 5EX, United Kingdom (56) Documents Cited:

GB 2321223 A1 GB 2261637 A1

WO 2001/062574 A1

CleverMade CleverCrates Collapsible Shopping Basket available on or before 26.06.2014 at https:// www.amazon.com/CleverMade-CleverCratesCollapsible-Shopping-Grocery/dp/BOOLFOHWXI [Accessed 01.08.2016]

AU2006200705

Sun Sugar Farms. Home of the CRESBI system, available on or before 21.09.2014 at https:// www.cresbicrate.com/index.php [Accessed 01.08.2016]

Powefix Aluminium Flat Bed Trolley available on or before 24.07.2014 at http://www.hotukdeals.com/ deals/powerfix-aluminium-fiat-bed-trolley-for-24-99lidl-from-monday-28th-july-1957818 [Accessed 01.08.2016] (58) Field of Search:

INT CL B62B

Other: WPI, EPODOC, INTERNET (54) Title of the Invention: Shop-a-box carrier bag free shopping system

Abstract Title: A collapsible box for shopping, and a shopping cart for supporting a plurality of boxes (57) A shopping system for supermarket shopping comprising a plurality of collapsible boxes that can be stacked, and a shopping trolley/cart for supporting said boxes. Preferably the boxes are made from a food grade polypropylene, and when not in use the boxes can collapse to form a flat pack. The boxes may include a pair of folding carrying handles to allow the box to be used as an alternative to a conventional shopping basket. The shopping cart is a flatbed cart constructed from a metal mesh welded to a metal tubular frame, mounted on casters. Alternatively the cart may be made from carbon fiber. The length of the cart can be extended or reduced dependent upon the number of boxes that are being used; and may be adapted to have a child seat and or disabled adaptations. The boxes are used with the shopping cart to hold items whilst a user is shopping. Once payment has been made at the checkout, the boxes can be re-loaded and used to transport the shopping. Alternatively the boxes may be used as re-useable home deliver boxes. The sides and ends of the box may be used for advertising and sponsorship.

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Intellectual

Property

Office

Application No. GB1604454.7

RTM

Date :2 August 2016

The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document:

WRAP

Mini

Ford

Fiesta

Mondeo

Peugeot 306

Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.gov.uk/ipo

There are over 61 Million residents in the UK which presently converts into about 22 million households; by 2020 it is forecast that those figures will increase to around 70 Million, or 25 Million households.

Just in the UK it is estimated that somewhere between 15 and 20 BILLION plastic carrier bags, or 800.000 tons of non recyclable plastic _x reach landfill each year, taking between 100 and 1000 years to biodegrade.

If we continue to pollute our country at the present rate, by the time the carrier bag you used at the supermarket on Saturday bio-degrades, a further 15 to 20 trillion others will have joined it in a landfill site potentially the size of The Isle Of Wight.

While the retail trade for the most part pay ‘Lip Service’ to the problem of pollution, while enjoying the profits, until now, no one has been able to offer a solution to the pollution caused by the plastic carrier bag as a bye-product of their success; “SHOP-A-BOX” while completely changing the way the British shopping public do their shopping, provides the only sustainable, realistic, cost effective and financially viable, workable solution.

indeed, while in those regions where a 5p surcharge penalty on the use of carrier bags where it is claimed they have achieved an incredible up to a 90% reduction in carrier bag usage, the very fact that carrier bags are still being used proves that the resolution of the problem of the pollution caused by carrier bags will not be achieved by “ A Sticking Plaster solution but by “Major Surgery”.

The process of reduction by the imposition of penalty charges or taxation provides only a short sighted, unsustainable solution, certainly in this country’ If we look at the historical rising cost of energy, water or fuel, vehicle excise duty, television licenses , cigarettes, food. While initially, price increases have a short term impact on usage, the general public simply become accustomed to the higher price and do not change their buying habits.

Ask yourself, do people use less Electricity, Gas, or Water? Drive fewer miles, or decide not to own a car? Do they not have a television, give up smoking only because of the price? or do they eat or drink less ? This proves that penalty does not work.

The SHOP-A-BOX Carrier-Bag Free Shopping System comprises of 3 main components

1) The SHOP-A-BOX

This is a food grade polypropylene, pre-formed, collapsible and fold away injection molded box (see attached drawing No 1 marked “Shop-A Box Drawing) For ease of storage and use, the box is both stackable, i.e one on top of another and flat pack fold away. Fold down carrying handles are provided at both ends making it an ideal alternative to the traditional supermarket shopping basket. It also doubles as a re-usable home delivery box, making it viable for both shop and delivery services

The drawing shows working model specific sizes, 475mm (L) x 345mm (W) x235mm (D) when open which reduces to 35mm (D) when folded down, final production sizes may vary subject to further consultation with appropriate retailers.

2) The SHOP-A-CART

At present, the SHOP-A-CART is a flat bed, robust, shopping cart constructed from a welded metal mesh on a metal tubular frame mounted on casters (see attached drawing no 2 marked Shop-A-Cart Drawing) (5 Pages)however, accounting for inevitable changes in the way self service shopping will develop, we are exploring a possible change in material from metal to carbon fiber (see paragraph 5 covering RFID)

The Standard Shop-A-CART is purpose designed and built to carry up to 6 SHOP-A-BOX’s, but by adapting it’s length, i.e. making it either shorter, or longer, it will easily convert to either a 3 or a 9 SHOP-A-BOX Cart with, or without child seat and with or without a disabled adaptations.

3) Commercial Advertising

Each SHOP-A-BOX will comprise of a molded base, built to self locate and hold fast onto the SHOP-A-CART, 2 long side and 2 end panels (See drawing 3 marked SHOP-A-BOX Drawing) (1 PAGE)

The Construction of the SHOP-A-BOX will allow spaces on both sides and both ends for commercial advertisings and sponsorship, by those major national and international organisations whose products currently stock the shelves in all supermarkets. All Supermarkets presently market advertising space on their shopping trolleys.

4a) The wav SHOP-A-BOX works

The SHOP-A-BOX Carrier-Bag Free shopping System will replace every supermarket trolley currently in use in the UK, so as opposed to using the conventional current trolley, “The Shopper” will collect a SHOP-A-CART and however many empty SHOP-A-BOXES they may need on arrival at the supermarket, (see Drawing No 4)(2 PAGES) Only in order to deter abuse of the system, the retailer may make a nominal charge for each box for fist time users, a suggested amount would be between 25p and 99p, but this could be rebated by the retailer subject to spend, or continued loyalty. Incentives, such as money off, extra club card points or other financial benefits to bring back and re-use the boxes should be an essential ingredient,

The Shopper does their normal shopping in a normal way, but uses the SHOP-A-BOX system as a substitute for the current shopping trolley or basket, stacking one SHOP-A-BOX on top of another to a maximum height of 3 in a stack, or 3, 6 or 9 on a cart.

On completion of their shopping, the shopper would go to the checkout in the normal way, remove the boxes one by one and place each one onto the checkout / conveyor belt. The Cashier would then remove and scan each item and pass the box back to the shopper when empty for repacking in much the same way as at present.

5) R.F.I.D (Radio Frequency Identification)

While Bar Coding has provided an excellent vehicle for the retailers, it is clear that the checkout process has become a major stumbling block, where supermarket shoppers are experiencing long delays at the tills. The introduction of an RFID, as opposed to a bar coding process could potentially replace the need for cashiers, make the checkout process instantaneous, would guarantee very low or no stock shrinkage, and completely dispense with any unpacking or repacking at point of sale, since bulk shopping could be scanned and paid for in a single transaction. RFID is currently available, but lack of volume at present, means high costs, which would potentially come down if universally applied.

4b) Re packed SHOP-A-BOXES would then be re-loaded onto the SHOP-A-CART and wheeled to the shopper’s car, Full boxes could be stacked in either their car boot, or on their back seat for ease of transport.

The average car boot will hold -:

Mini 4, Clio 6, Ford Mondeo 8, Peugeot 306 6, Ford Fiesta 4,

On arrival at home, the boxes may be used to ferry the shopping from the car to the kitchen/storage and when empty, the SHOP-ABOX can then be folded away, nested for ease of storage and re-use on the next shopping visit in exactly the same way as bags for life are re-used. The obvious difference between this and traditional carrier bag shopping will be the integrity of the shopping, no squashed bread, no cracked eggs, no spilt yoghurts, no broken bottles, or cross contamination between food and non food such as bleach.

The potential success of SHOP-A-BOX results from the unique way in which it is pre-funded and financed.

6) Due to the quantities involved, for us, The SHOP-A-BOX itself will be very competitive in terms of manufacture and buying price, projections of at least 500,000 in year one during live trials with at least one supermarket chain, 4.25 million in year two, 8.5 million in year three and 17 million in year four are realistic and achievable. By the end year six, we envisage SHOP-A-BOX will be universally adopted in the UK, with potentially over 70 million boxes in circulation which would generate an estimated annual revenue in the region of £218 Million; which could be re-invested into job creation in the UK. (Calculation and figures are available for full inspection).

7) Commercial sponsorship and advertising will be offered and sold on every SHOP-A- BOX. This will generate a revenue after all costs of over £3.4 Million in year one, £14.9 Million in year two, £29 Million in year three and £60 million in year five.

8) Following discussions with some major advertising agencies, we have intentionally calculated our estimated advertising revenue at just £50% of that which is currently being achieved on current supermarket trolleys.

SHOP-A-BOX and SHOP-A-CART is:

FREE on demand to “The Retailer” PROFITABLE for “The Retailer” FREE on demand to “The Customer” 100% recyclable

100% re-usable

Lightweight and simple to use FULLY RFID compliant

9) Summary

We have received universal approval from those we have conducted discussions with: All the major supermarkets,

WRAP, The Welsh Assembly, The British Retail Consortium, Various Box and Cart manufacturers in both the UK and Europe, and some of the major advertising agencies who may be interested in the marketing sponsorship for our system. (Documentation available for your inspection) We have produced a fully functional and fully tested working model (available for your inspection)

The next stage will be to obtain a full patent and register SHOPA-BOX for international protection. Clearly SHOP-A-BOX is totally unique, there is nothing like it anywhere in the world, specifically because of its funding process and totally free supply to both the retail trade and to the public.

We need to appoint manufacturers for both the Box and the Cart: Selected manufacturers in Italy are the world leaders in the design and manufacture of the fold away crate and have the technology to produce computer cut prototypes as part of the design process. Potentially, this is a free service.

A well known Germany based company, already major players in Supermarket Trolley production have the technology to produce the Cart, whether in metal or carbon fiber, We have estimated costs from both, (Documentation available for your inspection)

10) Background and wav forward.

We are now poised to enter the next stage, accordingly the production of working prototypes will enable us to produce and demonstrate final working models to our main users; the supermarkets.

However, based on our current feed-back, it is almost certain and probable that once our working prototypes prove their use, that we will receive instructions for stage one: live trials.

My main concern is my own ability to manage a rapidly expanding system which inevitably will grow much faster than I can cope with. Even to the skeptic, the potential for a worldwide uptake is obvious, at 67 years of age, I simply do not have either the time or the energy to hold this back on reigns Accordingly, before taking the next step, I feel it would be prudent to put the business on a formal and sustainable footing as follows:

At present Shop-a-Box is owned totally by me, operating within my own small business partnership, both the intellectual Property and Patent pending is registered to me.

The appointment of a hands on management team and formulation of a separate limited company in which a share-hold could be offered may be one way of raising funding to push start the process and would certainly be high on my list of priorities

FUNDING

To a large extent, once the process is underway, the system becomes self funding, through the revenue generated via sponsorship and commercial advertising, initial funding to kick start final design production and the application for worldwide patents will be required,

The “Tipping Point” at this stage is being able to present a market ready working unit, to the major retailers, I believe the box and cart manufacturers will cooperate and assist in this process.

Presenting the final market ready unit to the major retailers, and with their agreement, making the transition from market ready to live trials would in itself generate the required advertising and sponsorship revenue to move the project on to the final stage.

Clearly, we may be just at the starting grid of a lengthy development process, issues such as ‘The Carbon Footprint,’ the mechanics of how and where periodical box advertising is updated and by whom, Free of charge boxes may result in abuse of the system, so how do we prevent it while encouraging re-use? FREE carts, will need to be serviced, maintained, managed and periodically replaced. There will be no more One Use Carrier Bags’ customers who still want a bag will either have to pay a premium or the supply of ‘Bag for Life’ equivalents will need to be similarly sponsored. How would we manage a staged launch? Could we transfer production to the UK, thus creating employment, in particular as the system has world wide appeal.

Adrian Lewis

Claims (1)

1. Claims

   The SHOP-A-BOX Carrier~Bag Free Shopping system is designed to replace the use of current supermarket trolleys and the current issue and use of plastic carrier bags throughout the retail trade in general.

   The system differs from conventional methods of mainly supermarket shopping, since the box itself replaces both the conventional shopping trolley, the conventional supermarket shopping basket and the plastic carrier bag, thus making both the carrying and transporting of shopping a much easier task, while reducing, or completely eliminating the issue and use of plastic carrier bags and helping to reduce the pollution cased by 17.8 billion carrier bags that end up in landfill each year, just in the UK.

   The Design of the SHOP-A-BOX allows it to both stack and fold away, making its use very versatile in terms of high volume and use of space when not in use, it is also designed to locate and stabilise itself onto the base plate of THE SHOP-ACART (see Drawing 4) making it safe and secure to use.

   The SHOP-A-CART is designed to be either extended or reduced in size so as to be available for a 3,6,9 or a12 box cart.

   Additions of a disabled adaptation and child seat application can be easily added to all models.

   The SHOP-A-BOX System is unique, and has no other competitive equivalent product anywhere in the world, not so much in it’s function as many trolleys carry many boxes in many countries of the world, but in terms of what it replaces how it replaces it and how self finances itself, making it a realistic and workable solution that is free to the retailer, free to the shopper, the end user, 100% bio-degradable and user friendly that will help to reduce the pollution problem that plastic carrier have and will continue to cause.

   Initial discussions with Major Supermarkets, Major Potential Advertisers and WRAP The Government Agency responsible for wrapping and packaging have indicated massive interest, while none of those contacted are aware of the full picture, and the method that the system would be financed, we are confident that once SHOP-ABOX is protected against those who may seek to copy it, uptake will be both universal and a final answer to the carrier bag problem.

   We therefore request for a patent to be issued on this product.

   Intellectual

   Property

   Office

   Application No: GB1604454.7