Patent ID: 7124940
Filing Date: 2006-10-24
Classification: G06Q,G07F,G07G

Abstract:
1. A shopping method comprising the steps of: placing sales assistants having portable checkout devices with shoppers within a retail establishment so as to produce purchases by the shoppers from a line of merchandise; using the portable checkout devices to record the purchases of the shoppers and simultaneously, for each of the purchases, to produce a combination paper sales receipt and pickup voucher providing a pickup point access code, pickup point identity external to the retail establishment, and pickup point compartment identity; reserving the pickup point compartments associated with the compartment identities at the same time as the purchases; moving the purchases to a wrapping point associated with the retail establishment; wrapping and marking the purchases with the pickup point access codes, pickup point identities and pickup point compartment identities; delivering and securing the wrapped purchases within the reserved pickup compartments at the pickup points; and enabling the combination sales receipt and pickup vouchers of the shoppers to provide access to the respective pickup compartments.