Patent ID: 8117057

Claim:
A computer-assisted method of determining, producing and presenting for sale quantities of perishable, store-prepared food items that should be displayed for consumer selection and purchase on a daily basis, the method comprising: (a) collecting daily sales data for the perishable, store-prepared food items; (b) saving the daily sales data in memory of a computer system; and (c) for a current specific day of the week, (i) processing, by the computer system, the stored daily sales data for the specific day to determine, for each of the perishable, store-prepared food items, a quantity to be placed on display; and (ii) reporting a target preparation quantity for each of the perishable, store-prepared food items; (d) generating, by the computer system, a first preparation guide for the current specific day, the first preparation guide identifying each perishable, store-prepared food item and its associated target preparation quantity; (e) comparing, on the current specific day, an actual number of each perishable, store-prepared food item on display for sale in the store with the target preparation quantity and, if the actual number is lower than the target preparation quantity for a given perishable, store-prepared food item, producing and placing on display for sale in the store the given perishable, store-prepared food item in a quantity sufficient so that the target preparation quantity is on display for sale in the store; wherein the step of processing the daily sales data includes the computer system utilizing a median number of daily sales identification routine that: (i) identifies a first median number of daily sales for the specific day over a first specified number of prior weeks immediately prior to the specific day, (ii) if the first median number of daily sales is zero, identifies a second median number of daily sales for the specific day over a second specified number of prior weeks immediately prior to the specific day, the second specified number less than the first specified number, and (iii) if the second median number of daily sales is zero, identifies a third median number of daily sales for the specific day over a third specified number of prior weeks immediately prior to the specific day, the third specified number less than the second specified number.