WO2004030486A1

WO2004030486A1 - Coin-holding key for users of supermarket carts

Info

Publication number: WO2004030486A1
Application number: PCT/IT2003/000587
Authority: WO
Inventors: Fabrizio Bigi; Alessio Amatori
Original assignee: Mondo Idea Di Bigi Federico
Priority date: 2002-10-03
Filing date: 2003-09-30
Publication date: 2004-04-15
Also published as: ITMC20020079A0; AU2003274728A1; ITMC20020079A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a coin-holding key for users of supermarket carts, consisting in a universal tool that can be used both as support to contain a coin suitable for opening the lock of the attachment device mounted on the cart handle and as faked-coin to open the lock.

Description

Coin-holding key for users of supermarket carts.

The present patent application for industrial invention relates to a coin-holding key for users of supermarket carts.

As it is known, supermarkets, and especially grocery department stores, usually have one or more parking areas for shopping carts used by customers to collect items from displays, shelves or counters and transport them.

Cart parking areas are normally located in large parking lots near the shopping centre, so that customers can park, get a shopping cart and enter the supermarket with it. Then customers can return to the parking lot with their cart full, unload the items from the cart to the car, can leave the cart in the cart parking area and get in their car, without having to go back into the store, as it would have been necessary if the cart parking area had been located inside the store. On the other hand, it is necessary to handle a large number of shopping carts and prevent customers from leaving the cart in the first location available, such as for example the parking lot. If this was the case, the supermarket personnel would be obliged to collect the carts that were not returned to the cart parking area. As a solution to this problem, supermarket carts have been provided for many years with locking devices that permit to attach carts, one after the other. The user must insert a coin in the device lock to release the cart from the preceding one and use it for shopping.

These locking devices are designed in such a way that the coin is automatically expelled from the lock when the cart is attached to another cart, so that customers are encouraged to bring the cart back to the cart parking area to recover the coin that was inserted in the lock by attaching the cart to another one.

It may happen, however, that the user who is about to get a cart from the cart parking area does not have the coin that must be inserted in the device lock. In such a case, the user needs to find an automatic machine to change banknotes into coins, or repeatedly ask passers-by until he finds a person who can change the money for him.

In view of the fact that this situation may be embarrassing and bothersome, the problem has been solved by designing a coin-holding key that permanently provides users of supermarket carts with the necessary means to pick up a cart from the cart parking area.

The present invention derives from the fact that there are currently two different models of attachment devices, in which the coin is inserted either completely or half-way in the lock. Upon verifying that no other types of attachment devices exist, apart from the two aforementioned models, a universal tool for supermarket carts has been designed, suitable for use in both types of locks, as illustrated above. The tool of the invention consists in a special key, preferably a plastic moulded one, which comprises a body with a circular housing and a stem with enlarged semicircular head.

The coin that must be inserted in the cart attachment device can be exactly contained in the circular housing, by making a little pressure; and the semicircular head has the same thickness and diameter as the coin that is used to open the attachment device. From this short description it appears evident that the semicircular head is designed to be inserted in the lock of attachment devices requiring the partial insertion of the coin, while the coin contained in the key body is designed to be inserted - after removing it from its housing - in the lock of attachment devices requiring the complete insertion of the coin, until the same coin disappears.

The key of the invention is provided with a small hole that allows for attaching it to an ordinary key chain, in order for it to be always and easily available for use when necessary. Since customers usually go shopping by car, it appears evident that it will be very convenient to attach the coin-holding key of the invention to the car key chain.

The coin-holding key of the invention can also be used as key chain, by using the small hole to attach a spiral metal ring of the kind which is commonly used to hold keys together.

For major clarity the description of the coin-holding key according to the present invention continues with reference to the enclosed drawings, which are intended for purposes of illustration and not in a limiting sense, whereby: - Fig. 1 is an axonometric view of the coin-holding key of the invention.

- Fig. 2 is plan of the coin-holding key of the invention;

- Fig. 3 is the section of Fig. 2 with plane Ill-Ill;

- Fig. 4 shows an alternative embodiment of the key of the invention.

With reference to the aforementioned figures, the key (1) comprises a body (2) joined to a stem (3) ending with a semicircular enlarged head (3a).

The body (2) is centrally provided with a circular housing (2a), whose bottom wall has a through hole (2b) with lower diameter than the housing (2a), so that the housing (2a) is partially covered on the bottom by an annular crown (2c) that defines the hole (2b). The diameter and depth of the housing (2a) are such that it can exactly house, by making a little pressure, the coin that must be inserted in the lock of the cart attachment device, which is placed over the annular crown (2c); the forced insertion of the coin into the housing prevents the coin from accidentally coming out of the housing. In order to remove the coin from the housing (2a), the user must push the coin out with his finger through the hole (2b).

The semicircular head (3a) has the same thickness and diameter as the coin used to open the cart attachment device, so that the head (3a) can be considered as having the dimensions of a half-coin. The body (2) has a small hole (4) that can be used to attach the key (1) to an ordinary key chain either directly or through the interposition of a ring inserted through the hole (4).

The advantages of the key of the invention shall appear now evident, since the head (3a) can be used in the place of the key to open the lock of attachment devices in which the coin is only inserted half way.

The key of the invention can be very useful also in the case of supermarket carts provided with the other type of attachment, that is to say the type in which the coin must be completely inserted in the lock. In this case, the user can use the coin inserted in the housing located on the body (2) of the key (1 ) to get the shopping cart, and replace the coin in the housing after use. In a simplified embodiment shown in Fig. 4, the key of the invention is not provided with the circular housing (2a) in the centre of the body (2), so that the key can only be used to open the lock of attachment devices requiring the partial insertion of the coin in the lock.

Claims

1 ) Key for users of supermarket carts, characterised in that it comprises a body (2) provided with a stem (3) ending with a semicircular enlarged head (3a) having the same diameter and thickness as the coin that must be partially inserted in the lock of the attachment devices usually mounted on the cart handle in order to attach one cart to the other one.

2) Key as defined in claim 1 characterised in that it is provided with a circular housing (2a) in the centre of the body (2) that can contain, by making a little pressure, the coin that must be completely inserted in the lock of the attachment devices usually mounted on the cart handle in order to attach one cart to the other one.

3) Key as defined in claim 2 characterised in that the bottom wall of the circular housing (2a) has a through hole (2b) with lower diameter than the housing (2a), so that the housing (2a) is partially closed on the bottom by an annular crown (2c) that defines the hole (2b). 4) Key as defined in the preceding claims characterised in that the body (2) has a small hole (4) that can be used to attach the key (1 ) to an ordinary key- holding ring or key chain.