Patent ID: 7896243

Claim:
A method for un-attended, autonomous, and automatic dispensing of retail products, the method comprising the steps of: (a) interacting with a machine defining a system having an input/output (I/O) subsystem, a control subsystem having and being based upon a computer, a specially configured storage subsystem, a pick-and-place robotic-based product retrieval subsystem, and a product extraction subsystem; (b) enabling self-service retail sale; (c) permitting Internet sale with local product pick-up; (d) managing the business operations of the system; (e) replenishing inventory by processing sales information via software programs contained within the computer and creating and transmitting upon request or at predefined time intervals or at predefined scheduled times data concerning the inventory contained inside the storage subsystem, and providing the data concerning the inventory contained inside the storage subsystem to a regional inventory distribution center, which then analyses the data and, based on the data, causes replacement products to be periodically shipped to and stocked within the storage subsystem, thereby maintaining the contents of the storage subsystem at optimal levels; (f) restocking inventory; (g) operating and monitoring a security camera; (h) handling error arising when a customer's request for a product cannot be fulfilled; and (i) handling error arising when a product delivered to the customer is not acceptable to the customer.