Patent ID: 7272571

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling delivery of goods from multiple vendors to a plurality of customers, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving orders for multiple goods from a plurality of customers; means for determining, for each of the multiple goods, whether the good is currently available at a local pick-up point geographically close to an ordering customer, and treating each such good separately depending on whether the good is currently available at the local pick-up point, as follows: (i) in a case where the good is currently available at the local pick-up point, ear-marking that good for the ordering customer, and (ii) in a case where the good is not currently available at the local pick-up point, fulfilling the ordering customer's order by causing the good to be shipped to the local pick-up point in a shipping order in combination with goods ordered by those from among the plurality of customers who are geographically close to respective local pick-up points; and means for coordinating with the multiple vendors so as to arrange for shared shipping of ordered goods when respective ones from among the multiple vendors have received orders to be sent to identical local pick-up points.