Fixed self-checkout station with cradle for communicating with portable self-scanning units

Abstract

A retail checkout system includes a customer-operated portable terminal with a data reader, such as a barcode scanner, and a customer-operated self-checkout station with an automated payment-accepting subsystem. Customers use the portable terminal to identify and log products that are selected as they move through a store. Item identification data is then transferred to the self-checkout station, where the customer pays for the selected products using the automated payment-accepting subsystem.

1 - 54 . (canceled)  
   
   
       55 . A method of retail shopping, comprising the steps of: 
 obtaining a portable reading unit;    selecting a set of desired items;    identifying each of the desired items using the portable reading unit during the selecting step and placing the item in a shopping cart;    confirming via a mechanism associated with the cart that the item placed in the cart corresponds to the item identified;    linking, after completion of the selecting and identifying steps, the portable reading unit to a self-checkout station having a customer-operated automated payment-accepting subsystem;    waiting for a transfer, into the self-checkout station, of data identifying the set of desired items; and    paying for the set of desired items using the customer-operated automated payment-accepting subsystem.    
   
   
       56 . The method of  claim 55 , wherein the data identifying the set of desired items is transferred into the self-check-out station from the portable reading unit.  
   
   
       57 . The method of  claim 55 , wherein the data identifying the set of desired items is transferred into the self-checkout station from a base station that communicates with the portable recycling unit.  
   
   
       58 . The method of  claim 55 , wherein the desired items bear barcode symbols, and the step of identifying the desired items comprises reading the barcode symbols using the portable reading unit.  
   
   
       59 . The method of  claim 55 , wherein the automated payment-accepting subsystem comprises at least one of a credit card transaction device, a debit card transaction device, an a cash-accepting device.  
   
   
       60 . The method of  claim 55 , wherein the step of linking comprises a step of placing the portable reading unit into a cradle on the self-checkout station.  
   
   
       61 . The method of  claim 55 , wherein the obtaining step is performed in a first location, and the linking step is performed in a second location that is separated from the first location.  
   
   
       62 . The method of  claim 55 , wherein the first location and the second location are separated by at least twenty feet.