1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for the discount pricing of merchandise and fuel, and in particular, to a system and method having an in-store point-of-sale system communicate with a fuel center point-of-sale system to create a combined point-of-sale system that provides fuel discount pricing.
2. Related Art
Systems and methods exist for correlating a customer's purchases in a grocery store with the purchase of fuel at an affiliated fuel center. Typically, customers earn a fuel discount at the affiliated fuel center according to an amount of money spent on purchasing products in the grocery store itself. The awarded fuel discount is typically calculated as a discount, or savings, per unit (gallon) of fuel. These systems keep track of a customer's awarded fuel discount through the use of a customer loyalty card. Thus, a customer presents his/her loyalty card when making a purchase in the grocery store wherein the store records the purchase and calculates any earned fuel discount. Subsequently, when purchasing fuel at an affiliated fuel center (gas station), upon the presentation of the same customer loyalty card the customer is given the current fuel discount he/she has been awarded previously, thereby reducing the price of the fuel being purchased.
Typically, the existing fuel discount schemes are very limiting. First, they are restricted to a customer only making purchases in the grocery store itself. There is not a provision for the customer to earn, or contribute to, a fuel discount with purchases made at the fuel center itself.
Second, the existing fuel discount schemes are very basic in their calculation. That is, as the customer makes multiple purchases, the system determines whether the customer is entitled to a fuel discount based on that purchase. If the customer does qualify for a fuel discount through his/her current purchase, then the newly awarded discount is added to the existing fuel discount. Thus, the current discount schemes only provide for the aggregation of sequentially earned fuel discounts.
Gift cards are commonplace in various stores, such as Toys R Us and Walmart. In these stores, a customer purchases and activates a gift card for any amount he/she wants wherein the activated gift card may be used for subsequent purchases made in any of the affiliated store. Upon presentation of an active gift card for the purchase of products, the store's system debits the gift card by the amount of the purchase. In the current application of a grocery store being connected to and in communication with an affiliated fuel center, there is no existing method or system for using a gift card in the purchase of fuel.
Therefore, there is a need for a combined in-store and fuel center point-of-sale system that generates fuel discounts based on purchases made either in the store or an affiliated fuel center, that generates a fuel discount based on alternative purchasing habits of a customer and not just on sums total spent in the store, and that accepts and manages the use of gift cards for the purchase of fuel.