Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Patent
1997-04-02
1999-05-11
Hajec, Donald
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
235385, 186 56, G07F7/08
Patent
active
059029846
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for the sale of consumer goods, where the purchaser of an article at the place of purchase collects one or more non-validated card symbols of the article, where data carried on the symbol of the article are read and registered, where such data are converted to a price for the article which is paid by the purchaser of the article, where the purchaser of the article receives a validated symbol of the article, and where the article is dispensed to the purchaser at a dispensing location in return for his/her depositing the validated symbol of the article, the symbol of the article subsequently being invalidated,
2. Prior Art
Such a system is known from, inter alia, the furniture company IKEA.
The known system is based on a purchaser of an article collecting at a place of purchase the non-validated symbol of the article at one of the many service areas found at the place of purchase. When the customer receives this non-validated symbol of the article, the customer simultaneously knows that the article is reserved for him/her in the stock room. When the customer presents the symbol of the article at the check-out register, this symbol, generally in the form of a large card where the article is described, is read either manually followed by manual typing on the cash register, or by optical reading of a code on the card, for example a bar code. The code for the particular article is converted by a computer system to an article price, which is added to the bill that is to be paid in cash by the customer. Only when the article or articles have been paid, will the customer receive a validated symbol of the article. Simultaneously, a message is automatically transmitted to the stock room indicating that the customer has bought and paid for a particular article, so that the customer will receive the article when he/she visits the stock room At the same time the validated symbol of the article, for example a cash register receipt with a special note, is invalidated by the person delivering the article, by a cancellation stamp being placed on the receipt.
EP-A-135,631 teaches a system for the sale of consumer goods, where there is used a programmable card which at a sale is provided with information about the article to be delivered After the article has been delivered, the information on the card is deleted. However, the system may easily be cheated by means of card copies being made.
Other examples of prior art within the patent literature to be mentioned are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,669,596, 3,870,135, 4,767,917, 5,133,441, 3,939,952 and WO 88/04433.
However, within the grocery trade there is another problem which is of great concern, that is, the steadily increasing problem of theft or pilfering of cigarettes and tobacco goods. Particularly in the case of larcenies, packs of cigarettes and tobacco goods as a whole are a favorite object of thefts. This is due to the fact that tobacco goods are easy to sell, both to handlers of stolen goods and to people in general who often buy single packs or cartons in the streets. On a country-wide basis, the theft of cigarettes and tobacco goods in Norway amounts to values exceeding NOX 100 million per year.
It is often found in cases of theft that the whole of the easily accessible stock of cigarettes and tobacco goods has been taken.
By means of the present invention it is sought to solve this problem which is particularly prevalent within the grocery trade.
Although the present system has been shown and described particularly in connection with the sale of tobacco goods, it will be readily understood that the system easily may be used for the sale of other types of goods, particularly where price and size represent a security risk, for example CD's, Russian caviar, etch
According to the invention the system mentioned by way of introduction is characterized by
a preprogrammed, not reprogrammable card which is optically, magnetically or electronically readable and which forms the sy
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patent: 4645036 (1987-02-01), Nestler
patent: 4669596 (1987-06-01), Capers et al.
patent: 4767917 (1988-08-01), Ushikubo
patent: 5133441 (1992-07-01), Brown
patent: 5186281 (1993-02-01), Jenkins
Dunn Drew A.
Hajec Donald
Mekatronikk A/S
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