FR2734936A1 - Information recording method on cash register receipt - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves recording information about the purchases made by a customer. The data is temporarily stored. The roll of paper which is to provide the till receipt is then selected from a number of different rolls (6). The information on customer purchases is processed to provide a profile of the customer, which may be as simple as sex and age-group or may extend to social background. This profile is used to select the roll of paper pre-printed with discount or other offers that may be attractive to that customer. The customer transaction information is then printed (11) on the unused side of the selected roll of paper to provide a till receipt with offers printed on the back.

Description

 The present invention relates to a method of recording information on a receipt or a sales receipt, in particular at a point of sale of a retail store, and a device for its implementation.

 Many retail stores distribute discount coupons to their customers for the items they sell, either by mailing them by special mail, or printing them in newspapers or magazines, or incorporating into product packaging.

 Other stores equip their stores with separate printing systems to print individual discount coupons when one or more predetermined target products are purchased by the customer.

 These systems, however, require additional handling which must be carried out by the checkout operator.

 Another system is also known for printing reduction coupons on the back of a sales receipt which will be issued to the customer by equipping the cash registers with two print heads working simultaneously one on the front and the other on the reverse side of the paper strip which will later be cut out in order to issue the receipt, or of a mechanism for turning over the strip ensuring the passage of the front then the back of the latter in front of the same print head.

 However, this printing system has many drawbacks, in particular very high risks of failure or malfunction of the cash register, a very long overall printing time for the receipt, and requires extremely precise synchronization and adjustment. the unwinding of the reels and the actuation of the print heads.

 There are also known computerized point of sale systems equipped with optical readers for reading a product code printed on the packaging of an article, a processing unit for identifying among all the articles read one or more triggering products and a printer to automatically print the reduction coupon associated with the triggered product previously read.

 These computerized systems have in particular the drawback of only issuing reduction coupons in response to the purchase of certain predetermined products and of targeting this issuance directly on the purchase of products, that is to say by issuing reduction coupons for identical or similar products to the triggering products, which does not allow it to reach distant customers who are generally not consumers of these products.

 In all cases, the customer who receives the reduction coupon can use it during a subsequent visit to the store and these reduction coupons can be provided with a product code that can be read optically by the cash register so that this coupon is recordable in a similar way to other articles.

 In all known systems, the reduction coupons are printed directly at the points of sale and with poor print quality because the cost to equip each cash register with a color printer would be too high, and in general the printing of the prices and other information on the receipt is in low resolution.

 The object of the present invention is to avoid the drawbacks of previous systems and to propose a method of recording information on a sales receipt which can deliver to the customer a refundable reduction coupon without requiring additional operations on the part of the checkout operator and without significantly increasing the printing time of this ticket.

To this end, the present invention relates to a method of recording information on a sales receipt, consisting of
enter data relating to purchases made by a customer,
memorize this data at least temporarily,
trigger the unwinding of a previously stored strip of paper,
print information on the front of this strip of paper, such as the price of purchases made, for example, corresponding to the data stored, and
issue a sales receipt with reduction coupons printed or marked on its back, characterized in that it consists of
possibly enter information other than that relating to purchases, for example the customer's gender or age group,
process the stored data in order to determine, according to pre-established criteria, the client's membership of at least one of a plurality of predefined populations or distinct socio-cultural categories,
select from a series of previously stored strips of paper, the strip of paper on the back of which the reduction coupons corresponding to the population determined in the previous step are pre-printed, and
trigger the unwinding of the paper strip thus selected for the printing of its front.

 It is therefore understood that according to the invention, several strips of paper are prepared beforehand with reduction coupons printed on the back in high resolution, for example in color or in four colors, the reduction coupons which are printed on the same strip of paper being previously determined to correspond to a given population or socio-cultural category.

 The reduction coupons which are thus delivered to customers are not determined according to a triggering target product, but based on the client's belonging to one of a plurality of predetermined populations for which the different types of are known. items that the customer is likely to purchase.

 In addition, the number of reduction coupons issued to the customer is here directly a function of the number of his purchases because the reduction coupons are on the back of the receipt.

 In a first embodiment, when the population determined for the next client is different from that of the immediately preceding client, the method of the invention consists in rewinding the previous strip of paper until access to the selector and to the printing system is released, move the selector to the paper strip corresponding to the new determined population and unroll this last strip of paper for the printing of its front by the aforementioned printing system.

 In another embodiment, when the population determined for the next client is different from that of the immediately preceding client, the method of the invention consists in moving the print head in line with the newly selected strip of paper and actuating the unfolding of this last view of its impression by the aforementioned head.

 In the last two embodiments, the method of the invention may consist, when it has been determined that the client belongs at the same time to at least one second predefined separate population, to actuate the unwinding of the paper strip or strips on the back of which the reduction coupons corresponding to said second population are pre-printed. Of course, the different predefined populations can overlap or even add up.

 According to another characteristic, the method of the invention consists in interrupting the processing of the data entered as soon as the criteria for determining a population are met and at the latest when a certain number of processed data is reached, for example between 15 and 30, in the latter case, the client's membership of a population being determined as a function of this certain number of data already processed, in order to trigger the printing of the front of the receipt as soon as possible.

 This interruption limiting the processing of data is intended not to delay the printing of the ticket until the end of entering all the purchases, when the number of these is very high or when the additional information is redundant or can no longer lead to the determination of another population.

 In yet another embodiment, the method of the invention consists, when the population determined for the next client is different from that of the immediately preceding client, to deactivate the printing and unwinding mechanism of the previous strip of paper to switch that of the newly selected band.

 The invention also relates to a device for implementing the method indicated above, comprising an input means, such as a keyboard and / or an optical reader of the product code, for entering in particular data relating to the purchases made by the client, a buffer memory for at least temporarily storing this data, a storage means such as a reel for at least one strip of paper, an unwinder assembly for advancing the strip of paper from its storage means to out of the box, a printing system to print on the front of the paper strip information relating to purchases made by the customer, and a central control unit to transfer the data entered in the buffer memory and control the course and printing the strip of paper, characterized in that it further comprises a unit for processing the stored data to determine according to predetermined criteria has where the client belongs to at least one of a plurality of predefined distinct populations or socio-cultural categories, a plurality of paper strips on the back of each of them are pre-printed with reduction coupons corresponding to one of the different distinct predefined populations, and a selector for selecting from the plurality of paper strips, that which has on its back the pre-printed reduction coupons corresponding to the determined population, the aforementioned control unit also serving to actuate this selector.

 The processing unit can consist of software operated by the central control unit or of a set of suitable programmable microprocessors.

 According to another characteristic of the invention, the device comprises as many separate printing systems as there are separate strips of paper, a separate unwinder unit and an outlet mouth being associated with each printing system, the selector consisting of a switch for switching the actuation of the printing and unwinding mechanism associated with the preceding strip with that corresponding to the newly selected strip.

 In another embodiment of the invention, the device comprises a single print head which can be moved, preferably linearly, under the action of the selector, to come in line with the strip of paper corresponding to the determined population, a set dispenser and a separate outlet mouth being associated with each of the stored paper strips.

 In yet another embodiment of the invention, the device comprises a single fixed printing system and a tilting selector ensuring selectively the guiding of one of the paper strips towards the printing system, a first separate unwinder assembly being associated with each strip of paper upstream of the selector, and the device comprises a second common unwinder assembly for all the strips of paper and downstream of the selector, and a single outlet mouth for the receipt.

 According to a particular characteristic of the invention, the aforementioned selector is mounted for rotation on a fixed axis so as to come in front of a pair of prepositioning plates arranged radially with respect to the aforementioned axis and selectively serving as a guide for the '' of one of the different paper strips, the first precipitated unwinding sets also ensuring a rewinding function to release the printing system and the selector from the paper strip in use, when for the next customer, a different population has been determined.

 For this purpose, the aforementioned prepositioning and guide plates can be provided with optical cells triggering the stop of the rewinding of the paper strip as soon as the latter has freed access to the selector.

The invention will be better understood and other objects, characteristics, details and advantages thereof will appear more clearly during the explanatory description which will follow of several particular presently preferred embodiments of the invention, given solely by way of illustrative and nonlimiting example, with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which
- Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of the device of the invention
- Figure 2 is a schematic, partial view in longitudinal section of the device of Figure 1
- Figure 3 is a schematic perspective view of a second embodiment of the device of the invention
- Figure 4 is a schematic, partial view in longitudinal section of the device of Figure 3
- Figure 5 is a partial top view of the internal mechanism of the device of Figure 4, along arrow V
- Figure 6 is a schematic view, partially in perspective and partially in section of a third embodiment of the device of the invention
- Figure 7 is a schematic, partial view from above of the internal mechanism of the device of Figure 6, along arrow VII; and
- Figure 8 is a functional block diagram of the device according to the invention.

 According to the embodiment shown in Figures 1 and 2, the device of the invention consists of a cash register 1 comprising in particular a price display panel 2, a keyboard 3 for entering the purchases made by a customer and an outlet mouth 4 for a strip of paper 5. The optional optical barcode reader is not shown in the figures.

 As can be seen more clearly in FIG. 2, the internal mechanism of the cash register 1 comprises a plurality of reels 6 for storing paper tape, several pairs of first drive and guide rollers 7, two other pairs of second rollers drive and guide 8, prepositioning and guide plates 9, a selector 10, a printing system 11, a cutting member 12 and outlet guide plates 13.

 The selector 10 consists of a hollow tube able to be traversed right through by a strip of paper 5 and mounted to rotate on a fixed axis 14.

 Each storage reel 6 is associated with a pair of prepositioning plates 9 which are oriented radially with respect to the aforementioned axis 14, the selector 10 coming to align radially with any one of these pairs of prepositioning plates 9 in function of orders received by the central control unit indicated schematically in 15.

 We will now describe the path of a strip of paper 5 inside the cash register 1.

 The paper strip 5 is first unwound from its reel 6 to the associated prepositioning plates 9 by means of a first pair of drive and guide rollers 7 disposed between the reel 6 and said prepositioning plates.

 When the selector 10 is aligned with the prepositioning plates 9, the drive rollers 7 continue their action to advance the paper strip 5 through the selector tube 10, which strip 5 will be taken up by a second pair of rollers d drive 8 located at the outlet of the selector 10 and integral with the latter in rotation about the axis 14.

 The paper strip 5 is then brought through the printing system 11, that is to say between the printing head 11a and a pressure cylinder 11b and driven by another pair of second drive rollers 8 located downstream of the printing system 11 towards the outlet mouth 4 of the cash register 1, passing through the aforementioned outlet guide plates 13.

 The cutting member 12 is provided, for example, between the last drive rollers 8 and the outlet guide plate 13.

 When the central control unit 15 instructs the selector 10 to change the strip of paper, the rollers 7 and possibly the rollers 8 are rotated in the opposite direction to rewind the strip of paper 5 on its reel 6 until that the paper strip 5 discovers the optical cells 16 located at the level of the prepositioning plates 9 and triggering the stop of the rewinding of the paper strip.

 The printing system 11 as well as the selector 10 being therefore cleared of any strip of paper, the selector 10 can pivot towards the prepositioning plates 9 corresponding to the newly selected reel and the operations mentioned previously are repeated for the new strip of paper.

 In Figures 3 to 5, there is shown a second embodiment of the device of the invention.

 The cash register 1 here comprises several outlet openings 4a which correspond in number to the different strips of paper stored in the cash register 1.

 Referring now more particularly to Figures 4 and 5, we see that the device of the invention consists of several identical mechanisms and arranged for example in parallel.

 Each of these mechanisms consists of a coil 6, a printing system 17, a pair of drive rollers 18 and a pair of guide plates 19 in the vicinity of an outlet mouth 4a of the body 1.

 Each printing system 17 consists of a printing head 17a and a pressure cylinder 17b over which the paper strip 5 passes, a common supporting structure 17c supporting all of the printing heads 17a.

 The reference strips 5a in FIG. 3 indicate the strips of paper which protrude at the level of the outlet openings 4a when they are not in use, unlike strip 5 which is in the process of printing. .

 In this embodiment, the selection of one of the coils 6 only consists in activating one of the aforementioned mechanisms which operate independently and not concomitantly with each other.

 Thus, when for a next client, it is necessary to change the paper strip, the mechanism in operation is deactivated, a portion of the paper strip 5a possibly protruding out of the cash register 1, and the mechanism associated with the reel newly selected is activated and the paper strip 5 leaves the cash register 1 for the issue of a receipt.

 There is also provided in FIG. 5 a practical means for replacing the storage coils 6 when they are exhausted or defective, this means consisting of arms 20 articulated on a common axis 21 parallel and spaced from the axis of the coils 6 of so that each arm 20 by pivoting causes the lifting of a coil 6 and thus authorizes its release without being hampered by the neighboring coils.

 It can be seen in FIG. 4 that it is sufficient for each mechanism to have only a pair of drive rollers 18 between the printing system 17 and the outlet guide plates 19, because here, unlike the previous embodiment, the strip paper will not be rewound during use.

 In the third embodiment shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the device of the invention is partly found in an independent module 22 which is electrically coupled at 23 to the cash register 1.

 In this embodiment, the printing system specific to the cash register 1 is disengaged and the paper strip 5b which protrudes from the outlet mouth 4 comes from a reel of paper which is not used.

 One could possibly use the printing system specific to the cash register 1 to issue a cash receipt having reduction coupons on its back corresponding to one of the predefined populations.

 The device of the invention also here comprises a plurality of identical mechanisms and arranged in parallel, with the exception of the printing system 24 which comprises a single printing head 24a linearly movable on a guide rail 24c located opposite the different strips of paper 5 and able to stop in front of one of the strips according to the population previously determined.

 The selector here comprises a means 25 for driving the print head 24a consisting of a transmission belt 25a closed on itself and tensioned between two drive pulleys 25b, the belt 25a to which the head d printing 24a being rotated by pulleys 25b to transmit to the printing head 24a a movement of linear movement.

Of course, other means of driving the print head 24a could be provided, for example a linearly movable carriage under the action of electro-magnetic or mechanical means.
Only the pressure cylinder 24b remains unchanged with respect to the cylinders 11b and 17b.

 As in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the independent module 22 comprises as many outlet openings 4b as there are reels of paper 6.

 This third embodiment has the advantage of avoiding the replacement of all existing cash registers with new cash registers adapted to the device of the invention.

 Of course, the mechanisms of the first or second embodiment could be provided as a variant in a suitable independent module and vice versa the mechanisms of the third embodiment integrated in the cash register 1.

 We will now briefly describe the operation of the device according to the invention with reference to FIG. 8.

 When a customer registers his purchases at a point of sale, for example by means of a cash register 1, the purchases are entered using the keyboard 3 or an optical reader not shown, the data relating to the purchases being transferred by the control unit 15 to a buffer memory 26.

 The aforementioned central control unit 15 is connected to a processing unit 27 which determines the client's membership of one of the different predefined populations, as a function of the pre-established criteria stored in the form of a file in the processing unit 27 and data stored in buffer memory 26.

 When a population is determined by the processing unit 27, the central control unit 15 actuates the selector 10 or 25 so that it selects the coil 6 corresponding to the population determined beforehand by the processing unit 27.

 In the case of the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the drive rollers 7 and / or 8 are first actuated to rewind the strip of paper in use if it does not correspond to the population newly determined.

 When the reel selection step is completed, the unwinders 7, 8, 18 and the associated printer 11, 17, 24 are activated to print the purchase information on the front of the paper strip for the issuance of a receipt or sales receipt.

 Within the meaning of the invention, it should be understood that the reduction coupon can be replaced by other distinctive signs, such as colors for example, which would be specific to a determined population from a set of predefined populations.

 Although the present invention has been described in connection with several particular embodiments, it is obvious that it is in no way limited thereto and that it includes all the technical equivalents of the means described and their combinations if these fall within in the context of the claims which follow.

Claims (12)

 1. Method for recording information on a sales receipt, consisting of  enter data relating to purchases made by a customer,  memorize this data at least temporarily,  trigger the unwinding of a previously stored strip of paper (5),  print information on the front of this strip of paper, such as the price of purchases made, for example, corresponding to the data stored, and  issue a sales receipt with reduction coupons printed or marked on its back, characterized in that it consists of  possibly enter information other than that relating to purchases, for example the customer's gender or age group,  process the data stored in order to determine according to pre-established criteria the client's membership of at least one of a plurality of predefined populations or socio-cultural categories,  select from a series of previously stored strips of paper, the strip of paper on the back of which the reduction coupons corresponding to the population determined in the previous step are pre-printed, and  trigger the unwinding of the paper strip thus selected for the printing of its front.  2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists, when the population determined for the next client is different from that of the immediately preceding client, to rewind the previous strip of paper until access to the selector (10) and the printing system (11) is released, move the selector to the paper strip corresponding to the new determined population and unroll this last strip of paper for the printing of its front side by the aforementioned impression.  3. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists, when the population determined for the next client is different from that of the immediately preceding client, to move the print head (24a) in line with the paper strip newly selected and activate the unwinding of the latter for printing by the aforementioned head.  4. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists, when the population determined for the next client is different from that of the immediately preceding client, to deactivate the printing (17) and unwinding (18) mechanism. the previous strip of paper to switch the strip of the newly selected strip.  5. Method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that it consists, when it has been determined that the client belongs at the same time to at least one second distinct predefined population, to actuate the unwinding of the paper strip or strips on the back of which the reduction coupons corresponding to said second population are pre-printed.  6. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it consists in interrupting the processing of the data entered as soon as the criteria for determining a population are met and at the latest when a certain number of data processed. is reached, for example between 15 and 30, in the latter case the client's membership of a population being determined as a function of this certain number of data already processed.  7. Device for implementing the method according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising an input means, such as a keyboard (3) and / or an optical product code reader, in particular for inputting data relating to purchases made by the customer, a buffer memory (26) for at least temporarily storing this data, a storage means such as a reel (6) for at least one strip of paper (5), an unwinder assembly (7, 8 , 18) for advancing the paper web from its storage means towards the outlet (4, 4a, 4b) of the box (1), a printing system (11, 17, 24) for printing on the front of the paper strip information relating to purchases made by the customer, and a central control unit (15) for transferring the data entered in the buffer memory and controlling the progress and printing of the paper strip, characterized in which it further comprises a donation processing unit (27) stored in memory to determine according to pre-established criteria the client's membership of at least one of a plurality of predefined distinct populations or socio-cultural categories, a plurality of strips of paper on the back of each are pre-printed reduction coupons corresponding to one of the different distinct predefined populations, and a selector (10, 25) for selecting from the plurality of paper strips, that which has on its back the corresponding pre-printed reduction coupons to the determined population, the aforementioned control unit (15) also serving to actuate the selector.  8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that it comprises as many separate printing systems (17) as separate paper strips, a dispenser assembly (18) and a separate outlet mouth (4a) being associated with each printing system (17), the selector consisting of a switch for switching the actuation of the printing (17) and unwinding (18) mechanism associated with the preceding strip with that corresponding to the newly selected strip.  9. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that it comprises a single print head (24a) movable, preferably linearly, under the action of the selector (25), to come in line with the corresponding strip of paper to the determined population, a separate unwinder assembly (18) and an outlet outlet (4b) being associated with each of the stored strips of paper.  10. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that it comprises a single fixed printing system (11) and a tilting selector (10) selectively guiding one of the paper strips towards the printing system , a first separate unwinder assembly (7) being associated with each strip of paper upstream of the selector, and in that the device comprises a second unwinder assembly (8) common for all the strips of paper and downstream of the selector, and a single outlet opening (4) for the receipt.  11. Device according to claim 10, characterized in that the aforementioned selector (10) is rotatably mounted on a fixed axis (14) so as to come opposite a pair of prepositioning plates (9) arranged radially with respect to to the aforementioned axis (14) and selectively serving as a guide for one of the different paper strips (5), the first aforementioned unwinding assemblies (7) also providing a rewinding function to release the printing system (11) and the selector (10) of the strip of paper in use, when for the next client, a different population has been determined.  12. Device according to claim 11, characterized in that the aforementioned prepositioning and guide plates (9) are provided with optical cells (16) triggering the stop of the rewinding of the paper strip as soon as the latter has released the 'access to the selector (10).