US3846947A

US3846947A - Combination warehouse-retail sales facility

Info

Publication number: US3846947A
Application number: US00417033A
Authority: US
Inventors: T Short
Original assignee: LEVITZ FURNITURE CORP
Current assignee: LEVITZ FURNITURE CORP
Priority date: 1973-11-19
Filing date: 1973-11-19
Publication date: 1974-11-12
Anticipated expiration: 1991-11-12
Also published as: DK47674A; NL7401702A; FR2251689A1; BE810923A; JPS5080643A; SE7401105L; BR7400775A; JPS538138B2; FR2251689B3; AU6502074A; NO740356L; GB1424312A; DE2404883A1; AU470929B2

Abstract

An improved combination furniture warehouse - retail sales facility includes spaced parallel elongate retail showroom enclosures supported above the floor of the facility by spaced warehouse rack structures. Furniture-handling equipment operates on the floor of the structure in the warehouse access aisles between the storage racks. A mezzanine provides for customer access to the showroom enclosures. The mezzanine connects the entrances to the enclosures with a customer entrance door. Physical safety of the customer is assured by physically segregating them on the mezzanine floor spaced above the main floor on which the furniture-handling equipment operates.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Short [4 1 Nov. 12, 1974 COMBINATION WAREHOUSE-RETAIL SALES FACILITY [75] Inventor: Thomas W. Short, Phoenix, Ariz.

[73] Assignee: Levitz Furniture Corporation,

Pottstown, Pa.

[22] Filed: Nov. 19, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 417,033

[52] US. Cl 52/236, 52/36, 214/164 [51] .Int. Cl E04h 3/02 [58] Field of Search-...., 52/33, 236, 36, 40; 214/16, 16.4 R, 16.4 A

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,233,374 2/1966 Micheels 52/36 Primary Examiner.lohn E. Murtagh Attorney, Agent, or FirmWilliam H. Drummond; Gregory J. Nelson; Don J. Flickinger [57] ABSTRACT An improved combination furniture warehouse retail sales facility includes spaced parallel elongate retail showroom enclosures supported above the floor of the facility by spaced warehouse rack structures. Furniture-handling equipment operates on the floor'of the structure in the warehouse access aisles between the storage racks. A mezzanine provides for customer access to the showroom enclosures. The mezzanine conmeets the entrances to the enclosures with a customer entrance door. Physical safety of the customer is assured by physically segregating them on the mezzanine floor spaced above the main floor on which the furniture-handling equipment operates.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTED Nov 12 m4 saw 10? 5 3'846'947 IE IE-i PATENTEUNUY 12 1914 saw nor 5 3'845-947 JUP 4 COMBINATION WAREHOUSE-RETAIL SALES FACILITY This invention relates to a novel building construction.

More specifically, the invention relates to a warehouse with integral warehouse-showroom facilities.

In a further and more particular respect, the invention relates to a building construction specially adapted for warehouse storage and retail sale of furniture, household appliances and related items.

In still another and more specific respect, the invention relates to an integrated building facility to which merchandise is delivered by rail or truck directly from the manufacturer where it is stored in specially constructed warehouse areas, displayed for sale in specially constructed retail showroom areas, sold to retail customers, and delivered directly to the customer or loaded into vans for delivery to thecustomers residences. 1

In another important respect, the invention concerns a building facility of the type described which occupies less land than conventional retail furniture stores and associated warehouse facilities and which can be more rapidly and economically erected, using less highly skilled labor.

Until very recent times, virtually all furniture and applianc es were soldat conventional retail furniture stores located in the business districts of metropolitan areas. These business districts were usually located at some distance from major transportation facilities such as railroads and interstate highways. Consequently, merchandise was transported from the furniture factories to warehouses located in the vicinity of the major transportation facilities and was then redistributed to the conventional retail furniture stores to replace stock as it was sold to the retail purchaser. In the retail store, the furniture was conventionallydisplayed in yast open areas where it was virtually impossible to visualize the furniture as it would appear in the purchasers home, grouped in room settings with appropriate light fixtures, lamps, pictures, wall hangings, and other accessories. After the retail customer made his selections, the furniture was normally transferred to a shipping dock where it was loaded into vans for delivery to the customers residence. Usually, there were no facilities provided for the customer to pick up his own purchases and load them into his own vehicle for immediate selfdelivery.

Recently, conventional retail furniture stores located in downtown metropolitan business districts have been widely displaced by combination warehouse-showroom facilities located in outlying metropolitan areas served by both rail and highway transportation. The potential retail customer can usually reach such sales facilities more quickly and conveniently as they are located on major highways away from normally congested downtown business districts. The furniture is delivered by rail directly into the combination warehouseshowroom facility where it is stored and where representative items are displayed in adjacent retail facilities. The customer makes his selections from samples available in the retail showroom portion of the facility and corresponding items, still crated or bosed, are removed from the warehouse portion of the facility and delivered directly to the customer at a special pickup dock or loaded into vans for delivery to the customers residence. Substantial savings are effected because of,

reduced furniture handling costs as compared to the handling costs encountered in operating conventional retail furniture stores, and the customer is able to effect even further savings by self-delivery of his purchases, if desired.

Special display techniques were also developed to complement the warehouse-showroom facilities described above. The retail showroom, located in a separate area adjacent to the warehouse storage area, was divided by numerous elongate partitions into aisles not substantially wider than a room in a conventional residence, and a room-height ceiling further contributed to the home-like setting. The furniture could then be displayed in room-setting groups along with appropriate wall-mounted accessories, ceiling fixtures, etc., such that the customer could more accurately visualize how the furniture would appear in his home. Furthermore, related room settings such as living room suites, dining room sets, etc., could be rapidly inspected and com pared by the purchaser as he walked along the elongate aisles containing the repeated groupings of similar furniture.

The operators of warehouse-showroom facilities expended considerable sums in advertising to impress the prospective retail customer that he was, in fact, purchasing his furniture from a warehouse facility, with attendant savings, increased availability of specific items, and immediate delivery. However, despite these advertising expenditures, it was discovered that the only completely effective way of impressing the customer with these facts was to have the customer entrance to the facility located in close proximity to the customer .pickup dock where he could see previous customers picking up the merchandise they had just purchased and have the customer entrance open directly into the warehouse area where the customer could actually see the merchandise just purchased being removed from the warehouse storage racks and taken to the customer pickup dock. After the customer passed by the pickup dock and through a portion of the warehouse area, he then entered the separate retail showroom area described above to view the room settings of furniture arranged along the elongate aisles.

Although the warehouse-showroom facilities described above operate with a high degree of efficiency, it would be desirable, in view of land and construction costs, to reduce the overall area occupied by the facility and reduce the cost and complexity of the building and equipment. However, it would also be desirable to effect these economies in building construction and land costs without reducing the storage capacity of the warehouse facility or the amount of retail showroom space available, while retaining the advantageous layout of the showroom facilities and enabling the customer to readily perceive that he is, in fact, making his purchases in a warehouse facility.

In my prior co-pending application Ser. No. 280,491, filed Aug. 14, 1972, I describe a mezzanine-storage warehouse with integral retail showroom facilities. This novel building effected distinct economies in construction and land costs without reducing the storage capacity of the warehouse facility or the amount of retail showroom space available in comparison to prior conventional warehouse-showroom facilities. These economies were effected while retaining the desired layout of showroom facilities and enabling the customer to readily perceive that he, in fact, is making his purchases from a warehouse facility The building construction disclosed in my said copending application consisted of a plurality of parallel elongate enclosures which defined retail showroom areas inside the enclosures and warehouse access aisles between them. A plurality of vertically spaced warehouse storage floors were located above the showroom enclosures. The warehouse storage spaces between the storage floors opened onto and were accessible from the warehouse aisles between the showrooms. A building enclosed the retail showrooms and the warehouse access aisles and the storage spaces.

In the building described in my said co-pending application, communication for customers between the reof operation and visual impression, there existed the possibility of injury to customers by the furniturehandling equipment which utilized the same floor space in the cross-aisle. To alleviate this possibility, special measures were suggested in my co-pending application such as the provision of a specially constructed stacker crane which operated on rails spaced above the warehouse storage floors and special enclosures at the point of juncture of the warehouse access aisles and the cross-aisle to prevent collisions with customers traversing the cross-aisle. Such measures, however, proved unduly expensive and, in addition, tended to detract from the desired physical impression of the potential customer. In particular, the use of the specially constructed stacker crane dictated that at least one such crane be provided for each of the plurality of warehouse access aisles.

Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide a combination warehouse retail sales facility of the generaltype disclosed in my said co-pending application which is improved by the provision of separate floor spaces in the cross-aisle to maintain physical segregation of the prospective customers and the furniture-handling equipment. Similarly, it would be highly desirable to provide an improved facility of the general type described in my said co-pending application which permits the use of a reduced number of stacker cranes and, further, which permits the use of stacker cranes of more standard design which are already conventionally available.

Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved combination warehouse retail sales storage facility.

Another important object of the invention is to provide such improved combination warehouse retail sales facility in which the safety aspects of the operation of the facility are vastly improved by the physical segregation of potential customers and furniturehandling equipment.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved facility of the type described above which makes it possible to utilize a reduced number of stacker cranes.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a safer facility of the type described above which permits the use of conventionally constructed stacker cranes rather than the more expensive specially constructed cranes described in my said co-pending application.

Still another and further important object of the invention is the provision of an improved combination warehouse retail sales facility having the foregoing advantages in which the desired visual impact on the prospective retail customer is not substantially reduced or in which the visual impression is even enhanced while maintaining the physical segregation of the customers and furniture-handling equipment.

These and other, further and more specific objects andadvantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled'in the art from the following detailed description thereof taken in conjunction with the drawings, in whichz.

FIG. 1 is a cutaway perspective view of a construction embodying the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the lower floor of the building of FIG. 1 disclosing details of the furniture-receiving facilities and the aisles which provide access to the warehouse storage racks by the furniture-handling equipment;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the upper floor of the building of FIG. 1 showing further details of the retail showroom enclosures, the mezzanine providing access for the cus tomers between the entrance and the various showrooms;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the building of FIG. 1 taken along section line 4-4 thereof, showing further details of the warehouse rack structure, the retail display enclosures and other building facilities; and

FIG. 5 is a prospective view of one of the rack struc- I tures of the building of FIG. 1 showing, in greater detail, the relationship of the rack structure, the showroom enclosure, the customer mezzanine and other building facilities.

Briefly, in accordance with my invention,'l provide improvements in the combination warehouse retail sales facility of the general type described in my copending application Ser. No. 280,491. The facility described in said co-pending application includes a plurality of elongate parallel warehouse rack structures spaced laterally to provide warehouse access aisles on the floor of the facility for movement of furniturehandling equipment. Means are provided which define continuous elongate showroom areas on the floor of the facility enclosed within the lower portions of each of the warehouse rack structures. A cross-aisle extends upwardly from the floor of the facility and at right angles to the warehouse rack structures, providing communication for prospective customers between the retail showroom areas and providing communication for furniture-handling equipment between the warehouse access aisles. A customer entrance door is provided in an outer wall of the facility which communicates with the cross-aisle.

The improvement of the present invention provides for physical segregation of the customers and furniturehandling equipment to avoid the possibility of injury to the customers by the moving equipment. The improvement comprises, in combination, side wall, ceiling and floor means carried in the warehouse rack structures defining continuous elongate retail showroom enclosures, the floors of which are spaced vertically above the floors of the warehouse access aisles. Means are provided which form a continuous mezzanine in the cross-aisle extending at right angles to the retail showroom enclosures and across the warehouse access aisles, providing communication between enclosures for prospective customers. A plurality of vertically spaced warehouse storage floors are located below theenclosures, the warehouse storage spaces between the storage floors opening onto and being accessible from the warehouse access aisles and the cross-aisle. Outer walls and roof means form a building enclosing the warehouse rack structures, the warehouse access aisles, the warehouse storage spaces and the cross-aisle. Means are provided defining a customer entrance door in one of the outer walls of the building, communicating with the mezzanine.

Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 depicts a building construction which constitutes the presently preferred embodiment of the invention. Prospective customers enter the building through customer entry doors opening onto a mezzanine 11 spaced above the main floor 12 of the building. The mezzanine 11 communicates with spaced parallel showroom enclosures 13 in which furniture is displayed for sale, preferably in room-like settings. The spaced parallel showrooms 13 are integrally formed in and supported by a plurality of spaced parallel warehouse rack structures 14. Warehouse access aisles 15 are provided between the rack structures 14 for movement of furniture-handling equipment such as stacker cranes, etc., supported on the main floor 12. Customers walking on the mezzanine 11 are impressed with the fact that they are purchasing furniture from an actual warehouse facility because the high-volume continuous operation by the provision of i a rail delivery siding 16 running through the building such that merchandise on the railroad cars can be emptied directly onto the fioor l2 and moved immediately via the access aisles 15 to storage in the rack structures 14. Shipment of purchases to customers residences are made by means of delivery trucks 17 loaded through doors 18 opening onto the lower floor 12. Alternatively, customers may personally pick up their purchases at a special customer pickup dock 19. Note that even prior to entering the building through the doors 10, prospective customers are provided with a complete view of the customer pickup facilities 19, the truck delivery facilities 18 and the rail receiving facilities 16. Space for

offices

21 and 22 is provided on the mezzanine level to facilitate access of the customers to various required office services such as credit clearances, cashiers, etc.

The layout of the ground floor of the building of FIG. 1 is further illustrated in FIG. 2 which is a plan view of the lower floor. As will be observed, the warehouse rack'units, generally indicated by reference character 22, are positioned in spaced parallel arrangement supported on the main floor with main warehouse access aisles 15 therebetween. In the areas directly below the showroom enclosures, warehouse access sub-aisles 15b are provided. Furniture is removed from the railroad cars 16a entering the side of the building on a spur 16 and moved by conventional furniture-handling equipment via the main warehouse access aisles l5 and the sub-aisles 15b to storage in the rack structures 22. After purchase, thespecific items are removed via the

aisles

15 and 15b by the same handling equipment either to a truck shipping dock 18b or to a customer pickup dock 19. After making their purchase, customers can descend from the mezzanine via the stair 23 to a customer waiting room 24 to await delivery of their purchases to the customer pickup clock 19.

The mezzanine level of the building of FIG. 1 is depicted in greater detail on the mezzanine plan view of FIG. 3. Customers enter the facility through the main customer entrance doors 10 opening onto a mezzanine 11 above the main cross-aisle which connects the access openings 32 located in the ends of each of the elongate showroom areas 13. At both ends of the showroom areas 13 and between them, the customer can directly observe the warehouse activity including the unloading of the rail cars 16a, the movement of the incoming merchandise to the warehouse racks 34 and the removal of the furniture from the racks 34 after it is purchased for movement to the loading docks 18b and 19 (FIG. 2).

FIGS. 4-5 further illustrate the arrangement of the various elements of the building of FIG. 1 and such elements are identified by the same reference characters in the several views. While traversing the mezzanine areas 11 protected by railings 41, the customers have full view of the warehouse operations and access through the openings 32 into the retail showroom areas 13 in which the furniture is preferably displayed in room vignette settings. As a further precaution, to prevent injury to customers traversing the mezzanine areas 11, the ends of the rack structures 14 are provided with suitable screens 42 to prevent merchandise on the shelves 34 from falling onto the customers. V

The exact details of construction of the rack support structures are not deemed necessary since any suitable prior art technique can be employed in assembling the various support components, floors, shelves, etc. For example, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, vertical, horizontal and triangular support members and assembly hardware such as disclosed in US. Pat. No. 3,233,374 to Micheels et al. are used. Using, such support members and assembly hardware, the rack structures can be conveniently and quickly assembled by semi-skilled workmen.

Likewise, the exact details of construction of the side walls and roof enclosing the rack structures and forming the building are not considered necessary since such elements can be formed by any suitable prior art technique having regard for the disclosure hereof.

Having described my invention with sufficient particularity and in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to understand and practice it, I claim:

1. In a combination furniture warehouse retail sales facility specially adapted to physically inform prospective retail customers that they are purchasing merchandise from a warehouse facility, said facility having a plurality of elongate parallel warehouse rack structures spaced laterally to provide warehouse access aisles on the floor of said facility for movement of furniture-handling equipment,

means defining continuous elongate retail showroom areas on the floor of said facility enclosed within the lower portions of each of said warehouse rack structures,

a cross-aisle extending upwardly from the floor of said facility and at right angles to said warehouse rack structures, providing communication for prospective customers between said retail showroom areas and providing communication for furniturehandling equipment between said warehouse access aisles, and

a customer entrance door in an outer wall of said facility communicating with said cross-aisle,

the improvement whereby customers and furniturehandling equipment are physically separated to avoid the possibility of injury of customers by the moving equipment, said improvement comprising: a. side wall, ceiling and floor means carried in said warehouse rack structures defining continuous elongate retail showroom enclosures, the floors of which are spaced vertically above the floors of said warehouse access aisles;

b. means forming a continuous mezzanine in said cross-aisle extending at right angles to said retail showroom enclosures and across said warehouse access aisles, providing communication between said enclosures for customers;

0. a plurality of vertically spaced warehouse storage floors located below said enclosures, the warehouse storage spaces between said floors opening onto and being accessible from the warehouse access aisles and said cross-aisle;

d. outer walls and roof means forming a building enclosing said warehouse rack structures, said warehouse access aisles, said warehouse storage spaces and said cross-aisle; and

e. means defining a customer entrance door in one of said outer walls communicating with said mezzanine.

Claims

1. In a combination furniture warehouse - retail sales facility specially adapted to physically inform prospective retail customers that they are purchasing merchandise from a warehouse facility, said facility having a plurality of elongate parallel warehouse rack structures spaced laterally to provide warehouse access aisles on the floor of said facility for movement of furniture-handling equipment, means defining continuous elongate retail showroom areas on the floor of said facility enclosed within the lower portions of each of said warehouse rack structures, a cross-aisle extending upwardly from the floor of said facility and at right angles to said warehouse rack structures, providing communication for prospective customers between said retail showroom areas and providing communication for furniture-handling equipment between said warehouse access aisles, and a customer entrance door in an outer wall of said facility communicating with said cross-aisle, the improvement whereby customers and furniture-handling equipment are physically separated to avoid the possibility of injury of customers by the moving equipment, said improvement comprising: a. side wall, ceiling and floor means carried in said warehouse rack structures defining continuous elongate retail showroom enclosures, the floors of which are spaced vertically above the floors of said warehouse access aisles; b. means forming a continuous mezzanine in said cross-aisle extending at right angles to said retail showroom enclosures and across said warehouse access aisles, providing communication between said enclosures for customers; c. a plurality of vertically spaced warehouse storage floors located below said enclosures, the warehouse storage spaces between said floors opening onto and being accessible from the warehouse access aisles and said cross-aisle; d. outer walls and roof means forming a building enclosing said warehouse rack structures, said warehouse access aisles, said warehouse storage spaces and said cross-aisle; and e. means defining a customer entrance door in one of said outer walls communicating with said mezzanine.