METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VENDING PRODUCTS

• US 20080052175A1
• Filed: 10/29/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1997
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Andrew S Van Luchene, Charles Rattner, Daniel Tedesco, Jay S. Walker, John Packes, Magdalena Mik
• Original Assignee: Andrew S Van Luchene, Charles Rattner, Daniel Tedesco, Jay S. Walker, John Packes, Magdalena Mik
• Inventors: Rattner, Charles, Mik, Magdalena, Van Luchene, Andrew, Tedesco, Daniel, Walker, Jay, Packes, John
• Application Number:
  US11/926,412
• Publication Number:
  US 20080052175A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 15/005 with dispensing of lottery tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0071 Food articles which need to be processed for dispensing in a cold condition, e.g. ice and ice cream
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3248 involving non-monetary media of fixed value, e.g. casino chips of fixed value
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 5/24 with change-giving
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0036 Checkout procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/12 electronically operated digital data processing aspects G06Q20/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 5/00 Receipt-giving machines cash registers giving receipts G07G1/00

Abstract

A method and apparatus is disclosed for advancing the sale of vending machine products. The invention enables selling products without revealing the identity of the product. By concealing the identity of the products from a consumer prior to receiving payment, the present invention promotes the automated sale of perishable, slow-selling and/or less profitable products, to increase the overall profitability of a vending machine. Various embodiments are disclosed, including: predetermined price embodiments in which a vending machine sells one or more mystery products for a predetermined price; consumer-specified price embodiments in which a consumer is allowed to specify a price for one or more mystery products; and upsell embodiments in which a vending machine offers one or more upsell mystery products in exchange for the amount of change owed to a consumer, or in exchange for an amount of change owed to a consumer plus an additional monetary value.

Claims

1. A method for selling a product from a vending machine, the product identity being concealed at the time of offer, the method comprising:

maintaining a database of product data, including normal price data and minimum acceptable price data for each of a plurality of products;

identifying a monetary value available for purchasing a product;

selecting a product from among the plurality of products based on the monetary value and the minimum acceptable price data;

outputting via an output device an offer of the product to a consumer;

determining whether the consumer accepts the offer; and

dispensing the product if the consumer accepts the product, thereby revealing the identity of the product to the consumer.