Patent ID: 7027891

Claim:
A system for dispensing articles to a consumer, said system comprising: a first station at which articles having an assigned cash value are dispensed, said first station a) comprising a first terminal at which a user identification related to an established vending account is inputted by a user directly to a control panel upon the first terminal without inputting any foreign object to process a user request for an article and b) capable of causing articles to be dispensed to a user, said dispensing system further comprising a processing system, said processing system causing an article to be dispensed to a user at the first station in response to a user's inputting of a user's identification related to the established vending account at the first terminal, said system further comprising a second station that is similar to the first station and the processing system causes an article to be dispensed to a user at either of the first and second stations in response to a user's inputting of a user's identification related to the established vending account directly at the terminal at either of the first and second stations, wherein the processing system further comprises a central processor at a first location through which control of each of the first and second stations is coordinated at second and third locations, respectively, that are remote from the first location, wherein the central processor is capable of tracking transactions carried out at the first and second stations from the first location.