Patent ID: 7418311

Claim:
A portable dispensing system adapted for attachment to a golf cart for selectively dispensing refreshments and sundries, said dispensing system comprising: a housing including means for removably attaching the housing to a golf cart; said housing including a snack-holding portion, a thermally insulated beverage-holding portion, and a refrigeration portion; said snack-holding portion adapted with a plurality of snack-holding bins adapted to hold snacks in a generally vertically stacked column of like snacks, each bin including a snack-releasing mechanism for selectively releasing a snack to a dispensing region upon payment, said dispensing region including a door configurable from a locked configuration to an unlocked configuration; said snack-releasing mechanism comprises a plurality of vertically disposed sliding platforms for separating individual snacks within each snack-holding bin, each of said sliding platforms movable from an extended configuration wherein a snack is supported within a bin by said platform, to a retracted configuration wherein the snack is not supported by said platform and allowed to move to said dispensing region, and said door is unlocked; said beverage-holding portion adapted with a plurality of beverage holding bins, each beverage holding bin adapted to hold beverages in a generally vertically stacked column of like beverages, each beverage holding bin including a beverage-releasing mechanism for selectively releasing a beverage to a dispensing region upon payment, said dispensing region including a door configurable from a locked configuration to an unlocked configuration; said beverage-releasing mechanism comprises a gate, said gate configurable from a closed configuration wherein beverages are maintained within said bin, to an open configuration wherein a single beverage is allowed to move to said dispensing region, and said door is unlocked; said refrigeration portion including means for cooling said beverage-holding portion; and an inventory management system for controlling and monitoring the dispensing of snacks and beverages, said inventory management system including means for electronically accepting payment, means for releasing snacks and beverages upon receipt of payment, and means for monitoring inventory levels, and means for wirelessly communicating with a remote terminal.