Personal pricing system

A method for determining the price of a product or service under consideration by a purchaser from a vendor, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a device that includes customer identification indicia and a bar code scanner, and connects wirelessly to a database;
• using the device to scan a bar code on a selected product or description of a service;
• transmitting the bar code and customer identification indicia to the database;
• sending an opening signal to the device from the database, the signal being representative of discounts offered;
• monitoring the device to learn what discounts are available on the selected and/or competing products, the discounts appearing through display means associated with the device;
• presenting customer identification indicia at a checkout location;
• communicating a closing signal between the checkout location and the database, the closing signal being provided to a module that computes a discount to all applicable purchases;
• determining a reimbursement amount to be paid by the manufacturer to the vendor in proportion to the discounts applied by the vendor to the customer;
• and
• updating the database with information about the customer's most recent purchases.