Unattended Storefront Apparatus

• US 20170344969A1
• Filed: 05/05/2017
• Published: 11/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: High, Donald R., Atchley, Michael D.
• Application Number:
  US15/588,338
• Publication Number:
  US 20170344969A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/004 Restocking arrangements therefor

Abstract

An unattended retail storefront that is installed in a consumer'"'"'s residence. The unattended retail storefront includes an unsold product display and storage area, a retail-access portal that provides selective access from within the consumer'"'"'s residence to the unsold product display and storage area to thereby provide a consumer in the consumer'"'"'s residence with physical shopping access to the unsold product display and storage area, and an inventory-loading portal that provides selective access from outside the consumer'"'"'s residence to the unsold product display and storage area, to thereby provide a retail enterprise with inventory-maintenance access to the unsold product display and storage area. Part or all of the unsold product display in storage area may be refrigerated. One or both of the aforementioned portals may be lockable as desired. By one approach the retail-access portal can be configured to automatically lock when the inventory-loading portal is opened.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an unattended retail storefront installed in a consumer'"'"'s residence, the unattended retail storefront comprising;

an unsold product display and storage area;

a retail-access portal that provides selective access from the consumer'"'"'s residence to the unsold product display and storage area configured to provide a consumer in the consumer'"'"'s residence with shopping access to the unsold product display and storage area;

an inventory-loading portal that provides selective access from outside the consumer'"'"'s residence to the unsold product display and storage area configured to provide a retail enterprise with inventory-maintenance access to the unsold product display and storage area.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the unsold product display and storage area includes at least one area that is refrigerated.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the retail-access portal comprises a non-lockable portal.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the inventory-loading portal comprises a lockable portal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the retail-access portal is configured to automatically lock when the inventory-loading portal is open.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the unsold product display and storage area includes at least one sensor configured to detect product presence.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising:

a control circuit operably coupled to the at least one sensor and configured to detect when a consumer has removed a particular product from the unsold product display and storage area.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the control circuit is further configured to conduct a retail sale of the particular product to a consumer in response to detecting removal of the particular product from the unsold product display and storage area.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the control circuit is further configured to effect a return when a consumer properly returns the particular product back to the unsold product display and storage area.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

an unmanned motorized transport unit configured to carry unsold products to the unattended retail storefront and convey the unsold products to the unsold product display and storage area via the inventory-loading portal.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the unmanned motorized transport unit is further configured to remove unsold products from the unsold product display and storage area via the inventory-loading portal.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a network interface configured to communicatively couple the unattended retail storefront to a remotely-located central computer that is operated by an enterprise that also operates the unattended retail storefront.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a network interface configured to provide voice communications between a consumer at the unattended retail storefront and a representative for the unattended retail storefront.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of the unattended retail storefronts that are all installed in the consumer'"'"'s residence.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the unsold product display and storage area is stocked with a variety of unsold products.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the variety of unsold products are selected based at least in part on pervious purchases by a consumer who is associated with the consumer'"'"'s residence.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the previous purchases includes purchases made from the unattended retail storefront.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the previous purchases include purchases made at a manned retail shopping facility.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the previous purchases include online purchases.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the previous purchases includes purchases made from the unattended retail storefront, purchases made at a manned retail shopping facility, and purchases made online.