Electronic price label and method of graphically displaying relative information by an electronic price label

An electronic price label comprising:

• a liquid crystal display including a first portion for displaying employee-directed business information and a second portion right of the first portion for displaying price or promotional information, wherein the first portion includes a plurality of segments arranged linearly as a relative scale for displaying the employee-directed business information;
• a memory;
• and
• control circuitry for receiving the employee-directed business information, for storing the employee-directed business information in the memory, for determining a number of adjacent segments in the first portion to be activated based upon the employee-directed business information, and for activating the determined number of adjacent segments, wherein as the level of the employee-directed business information increases, the number of activated display segments increase.

A method of displaying employee-directed business information by an electronic price label comprising:

• (a) receiving a message containing the employee-directed business information from a computer by control circuitry within the electronic price label;
• (b) storing the employee-directed business information in a memory within the electronic price label by the control circuitry;
• (c) determining a number of adjacent linearly-arranged segments to be activated in a first portion of a liquid crystal display within the electronic price label for displaying employee-directed business information based upon the employee-directed business information;
• and
• (d) activating the determined number of adjacent segments, wherein as the level of the employee-directed business information increases, the number of activated display segments increase.