A method and system is disclosed that enables purchasers to purchase gas online for future delivery. The invention requires the purchaser prepay for online purchases or have been extended credit accepted by an oil company. The prepayments are credited to the purchaser's account. For each retail gas delivery, the oil company handles the online gas purchase transaction and reimburses the retail gas station owner for the online purchase. Specifically, the oil company reimburses the retail gas station owner for the taxes and profit on the gas delivered to the purchaser and also replaces the amount of gas delivered. In this way, the retail gas station owner is made whole for each delivery. Oil company also benefits with increased gas sales, increased profit and increased cash flow. Various embodiments of the invention are contemplated. The invention may require a purchaser to select a location of a retail gas station, a selected grade of gas or a combination of both.

An enhanced ejection device (10) for an automatic dispenser (12) of the automatic vending machine type, suitable for being incorporated in said automatic vending machine and applied to a shelf (14) subdivided into seats or channels (28) defined by opposing separator elements or shoulders (26) internally to which there are accommodated products of different types, the device comprising product handling and ejection means (27) for handling and ejecting the product from said seats or channels, and said handling and ejection means (27) being quickly couplable with/decouplable from the shelf (14).

Vehicles, components, and methods are disclosed for distributing hot or cold food items from a vending kiosk, a locker system, or a self-propelled delivery vehicle. The vending kiosk may have multiple doors, at least one of which is unlocked responsive to confirming a purchase transaction or authenticating the presence of a person or device associated with the purchase transaction. The multiple doors provide access to respective compartments that may be selectively heated and refrigerated. Such temperature changes may be based upon a temperature control schedule. The locker system may include one or more configurable compartments that may be accessible via a set of set of doors that can be selectively coupled into larger doors. The self-propelled delivery vehicle may have a plurality of thermally insulated compartments that may be used to carry multiple items at different temperatures.

A system and method for producing a supply cabinet system configured to dispense a plurality of items. The method includes determining, for each of a plurality of item types, a number of units of the item type capable of being contained within each of a plurality of dimensional variations of each of a plurality of storage module types. A storage module configuration is selected to contain a target number of the items of each of the item types. Each selected storage module configuration corresponds to a dimensional variation of one of the storage module types. A rack arrangement to hold the selected storage module configurations is determined. The supply cabinet system may then be assembled using a set of storage modules corresponding to the selected storage module configurations and a set of rack members corresponding to the rack arrangement.

Vehicles, components, and methods are disclosed for distributing hot or cold food items from a vending kiosk, a locker system, or a self-propelled delivery vehicle. The vending kiosk may have multiple doors, at least one of which is unlocked responsive to confirming a purchase transaction or authenticating the presence of a person or device associated with the purchase transaction. The multiple doors provide access to respective compartments that may be selectively heated and refrigerated. Such temperature changes may be based upon a temperature control schedule. The locker system may include one or more configurable compartments that may be accessible via a set of set of doors that can be selectively coupled into larger doors. The self-propelled delivery vehicle may have a plurality of thermally insulated compartments that may be used to carry multiple items at different temperatures.

A vending machine is disclosed which may include a level sensor to ensure proper positioning of the vending machine, and which can be used in an anti-theft alert scheme. The machine may also include an XY mechanism having an X-axis motor in a product area and a Y-axis motor in a transaction area. The machine may also include individually lockable doors between the product area and a delivery bin and between the delivery bin and the outside of the machine. The machine may also include quick release racks, trays and gates for easy removal and replacement. The machine may also include a controller which allows programming of product size or product price by rack or column. The machine may also include a refrigeration cassette which can be quickly removed and replaced. The machine may also include anti-theft legs or an anti-theft underside mechanism.

An automatic medication dispensing device for bottled medication includes a frame, a medication collection device and medication dispensing units; wherein: the bottled medications are arranged in a single column in the medication container; a medication outlet is set on the bottom wall at the medication discharging end of the medication container; the medication discharging mechanism includes a medication stopper and a push rod; the medication stopper is set at the medication outlet and one end of the medication stopper is hinged to the medication container, and the medication stopper has two working states of blocking the medication outlet and opening and a primary elastic element acts on the medication stopper; the drive device drives the primary pressing portion to act on the medication stopper and the secondary pressing portion acts on the first bottled medication at the medication discharging end.

A system and method for vending digital video discs is provided. A request is received from a user to complete a rental transaction for a first digital video disc. A database is queried to determine whether a quantity of a set of second digital video discs in a vending inventory exceeds a predetermined threshold. A discount offer notification is presented to the user to rent one of the set of second digital video discs, upon determining that the quantity of the set of second digital video discs exceeds the predetermined threshold. A second request from the user to rent one of the second set of digital video discs is received, and one of the set of second digital video discs is vended to the user.

Provided is a kiosk-integrated cigarette vending machine, which employs an internal loading/unloading unit having a cylindrical loading tray, thereby minimizing the size thereof and thus maximizing the efficiency of use of space compared to a conventional vending machine having a horizontal arrangement structure, which includes a reduced number of modules to be controlled, i.e. a rotary module for rotating the cylindrical loading tray and a push module for pushing a selected one of cigarette packs loaded in the cylindrical loading tray to dispense the same, thereby minimizing the probability of error occurrence and simplifying the maintenance thereof, and which includes size guides formed to be selectively mounted in slots in the cylindrical loading tray, thereby loading and dispensing all sizes of cigarette packs, rather than only cigarette packs having the same size, compared to a conventional vending machine storing cigarette packs having the same size.

A device for sorting objects, such as used beverage or food containers, that are conveyed on a conveyor. The device includes a first guiding member which is pivotable about a first pivot axis and configured to, when the sorting device is situated in a first sorting position, guide containers in a first sorting direction, a second guiding member which is pivotable about a second pivot axis, a rotatable drive member, a first cam mechanism interconnecting the rotatable drive member with the first guiding member, and a second cam mechanism interconnecting the rotatable drive member with the second guiding member, wherein the device is configured to, upon rotation of the drive member, be actuated between the first sorting position and a second sorting position.