Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method for processing data pertaining to a product purchased as part of a checkout operation, and more particularly to a method for identifying the price of a purchased product which is normally sold as a multiple-item package.

Background Art

Merchandise items such as beer and non¬ alcoholic drinks are often sold in packages of 6, 8 or 12 bottles or cans. As part of a known merchandise checkout system utilizing an. electronic cash register, a bar code (UPC) label is attached to a multi-item package containing data identifying the merchandise item but not the number of items contained in the package. During a checkout operation in respect of the package, the UPC label is read by an optical reader and the data obtained is used to access a price look-up table in a RAM. memory or in a remotely located disc file to obtain the price of the merchandise item. In order to identify the price of the package, it is known to use a selected one of a number of qualifier keys on the keyboard of the cash register as part of the checkout operation. The use of this type of key adds an additional data item to the UPC item code, thus giving the package a unique number which can be used to abstract the correct price which is dependent on the number of items in the package. One disadvantage of this known system is that the operator must recognize the need to use a qualifier key in connection with a checkout operation in respect of a multi-item package. Also, the number of qualifier keys provided on the keyboard are limited to the most popular size packages that are sold by the store. It

has been found, for example, that in convenience stores, which are open twenty-four hours a day, the number of items in a multi-item package is frequently less than the number of items in the original package, so that the number of items actually contained in the package as purchased may not correspond to any of the numbers represented by the qualifier keys. Thus, this known system has the further disadvantage that for some checkout operations it may he necessary for the operator to look up the price for a single_item, and enter manually this price into the cash register, and repeat such single item transaction for each item of a purchased-multi-item package.

Disclosure of the Invention

It is an object of the invention to provide a method for processing data relating to purchased products in which the disadvantages referred to above are alleviated.

According to the invention there is provided a method for processing data relating to purchased products utilizing an operator actuated electronic cash register having a keyboard and a display, and utilizing a price look-up file in which are stored -a plurality of data blocks each containing information relating to the price of a respective product, said data blocks being accessed in operation for the purpose of obtaining the price of- a purchased product and displaying this price on said display, characterized in that each of said data blocks includes or consists of a first data record in which are included a first data item which is the same for all the first data records, and a second data item which identifies the respective product, each of certain ones of said data blocks including in the first data record a flag indicative that the respective product is normally sold as a multi-item package, and including a plurality of second data

records in each of which are included the relevant second data item, a third data item representing a respective number of items in a package, and a fourth data item representing the price of said respective number of items, the method including the following steps: (a) generating said first data item and the relevant second data item for a purchased product; (b) comparing the first and second data items generated in step (a) with the first and second data items of the first data records in said price look-up file; (c) upon finding a correct comparison in step (b), checking whether the relevant first data record includes said flag; (d) displaying on said display the price of the purchased product as stored in the relevant data block if said flag is not detected in step (c), and, if said flag is detected in step (c),. providing an indication to the operator that the number of items included in the purchased product are to be entered in said cash register; (e) entering said number of items in said cash register by means of said keyboard in response to the provision of said indication in step (d); (f) generating the relevant third data item, as represented by the number entered in said keyboard in step (e), together with the relevant second data item; (g) comparing the second and third data items generated in step (f) with the second and third data items of the second data records in said price look-up file; and (h) upon finding a correct comparison in step (g) displaying on said display the price of the purchased product as stored in the relevant second data record.

Brief Description of the Drawings

A method in accordance with the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a electronic cash register used in a method in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the keyboard of the electronic cash register of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the electronic cash register of Fig. 1 employed in a checkout system for processing data pertaining to a purchased product, together with a separate optical scanner and a remotely located price look-up file;

Fig. 4 is a drawing illustrating a data block of the price look-up file in which are stored various data records relating to a multi-item package; and

Fig. 5 is a flow chart useful in explaining the method of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

Referring now to Fig. 1, there is shown a perspective view of the electronic cash regist-ar used in the present invention generally indicated by the numeral 20, which includes a keyboard 22, a display 26 extending from the top of the cash register, a printer 24 mounted on the left side of the keyboard and a cash drawer 28 which forms a support for the cash register. Positioned adjacent the keyboard 22 and the printer 24 is a slot 29 through which a receipt record member (not shown) moves to a position for presentation to the customer at the conclusion of a merchandise checkout operation.

Referring now to Fig. 2, there is shown a plan view of the keyboard 22 which includes a 10-key portion 30 comprising a number of conventional keys on which are located indicia indicating the numbers 1-0. The 10-key keyboard further includes an additional key 31 on which is located a 00 indicium. The keyboard 22 also includes a number of transaction keys 32 which are used to identify the department from which the purchased merchandise originates together with other control keys 33 which are used to totalize the checkout operation. Included in the control keys is an Enter key 35 used to control the access to a price

look-up file as will be described more fully hereinafter.

Referring now to Fig. 3, there is shown a block diagram of the electronic cash register 20 together with a remotely located price look-up file 44 and a UPC optical scanner 42 which interact with the cash register 20 to provide a checkout operation of purchased merchandise items in a supermarket. Included in the cash register 20 is a central processor unit (CPU) 36 which controls the printer 24 and the display 26. Associated with the CPU 36 is a ROM memory 38 in which is located the application software for operating the cash register 20 and a RAM memory unit 40 in which temporary totals are stored as part of the checkout operation. The price look-up file 44 has stored therein a plurality of data blocks each containing price information relating to a respective one of the products found in the supermarket. When found as part of a look-up operation, the price of a purchased product is transmitted to the CPU 36 for use in printing the price on a receipt member (not shown) by the printer 24 and displaying the price on the display 26 in a manner that is well known in the art. The UPC scanner 42 scans a UPC label located on the purchased product to generate data identifying the purchased product from which the price of the product is extracted from the PLU file 44 in a manner that is well known in the art. As will be described more fully hereinafter, the CPU 36 operates the display 26 in response to the program stored in the ROM memory unit 38 to control the type of data that is entered into the keyboard 22 by the operator.

Referring now to Fig. 4, there is illustrated a data block 50 of the price look-up file 44 (Fig. 3) showing the type of data that is stored in the file 44 in respect of a multi-item package. The first column 52 in the file 44 includes binary data representing

the size or number of merchandise items, such as bottles of beer, which are normally sold as a multi- item package. In the next column 54, the item. number identifying the merchandise items sold in such package is stored. In the next column 56, identified as the flag column, a flag represented by the binary number one is located in a first data record 92 of the data block 50 to indicate that the purchased product identified by the item number in column 54 is a multi- item package. After the first data record 92, the next and succeeding data records 94 in the data block 50 include the same item number as the record 92, but differ in- that the size or number of items in a purchased package can be represented by any number from 1-99, and in that the price associated with such size is included in column 58. The last column 60 may contain any data necessary to the processing of the purchased product such as inventory control data. Each of the other data blocks which correspond to products which are not multi-item packages simply comprises a single data record corresponding to the data record 92 of data block 50 without the flag but including the relevant price in column 58; thus, each of these other data records includes a first data item representing the size number 00, a second data item identifying the respective product, and a further data item representing the price of the product.

Referring now to Fig. 5, there is shown a flow chart of a checkout operation of the present invention which starts at the beginning of the operation (block 69) by the operator moving a purchased product past the optical scanner 42 (Fig. 3). The scanner 42 scans the UPC label on the package to generate a data item representing the item number identifying the product (block 70) for transmission to the CPU 36. The CPU 36 in response to receiving the item number data from the scanner 42 will transmit the item number to the PLU file 44. This transmission of

the data to the file 44 is controlled by the actuation by the operator of the key 31 (Fig. 2) which appends the size number 00 to the item number identifying the product which is used to access the file 44. Thus, this item number together with the size number 00 are transmitted to the PLU file 44 (block 72). The item number and size number are compared with the numbers in columns 52 and 54 of the various data records in the file 44. After finding a correct comparison, the CPU 36 will check whether a binary one is stored in the flag column 56 of the relevant data record (block 76). In response to sensing a flag, the CPU 36 will enable the display 24 to display the logo 79 (Fig. 1) entitled "Enter Package Size" (block 78). If a flag is not sensed, the CPU 36 will simply cause the price of the relevant product to be displayed and printed in conventional manner. In response to the displaying of the logo-79, the operator enters the package size number (i.e. number of items in the package) in the cash register 20 utilizing the keys in the 10-key section 30 (Fig. 2), and then operates the Enter key 35 (block 80). In response to the entering of the size number in the cash register 20 and the operation of the key 35, the CPU will transmit the item number and the size number to the PLU file 44 (block 82) for comparison (block 84) with the numbers in columns 52 and 54 of the various data records in the file 44. After finding a correct comparison, the price of the purchased product based on the size number associated with the item number is then extracted from column 58 of the relevant data record 94 and is stored, together with the item and size numbers, in the RAM 40 (Fig. 3) or any other type of memory by the CPU unit 36 (block 86) for use in displaying the price (block 88) and for use in totalizing the total cost of the products purchased. In addition, the price and the number of items in the purchased multi-item package are printed on the receipt record member and the journal record member by the printer 24 (Fig. 1) (block 90).

It will be seen that the use of a flag to designate that a purchased product is a multi-item package, and instructing the operator to enter the number of items in such package reduces operator errors since the operator does not have to remember to preselect a modifying key to control a checkout operation.