Patent ID: 7660647

Claim:
A method for processing vending machines from a central location in connection with a plurality of vending sites, each site having at least one of said machines, said method comprising the steps of: assigning to each machine an identification code; establishing a plurality of price-and-location menus for said machines, each of said menu listing the locations in a machine of a series of different goods and a sale price of each of said goods; keeping a record of each of said machines by identification numbers and related ones of said menus; at said central location: recording on a storage medium a route distribution database including machine identification codes, menus and site identification codes; at each of said sites and in at least one of said machines, compiling an account of good-selling transactions of goods previously installed in said machine; downloading from said machine and onto said medium, said compiled account; reading from said medium and writing into said machine, a price and location menu corresponding to said identification code; inventorying the contents of said machine; refilling said machines in accordance with said menus; at said central location: reconciling said inventoried contents with said downloaded, compiled account; applying said identification codes to said machine in a machine-readable form; and wherein said machine-readable form comprises a bar-coded indicium.