Timed cycle single stop shopping facility

A facility for vending vehicle fuel and consumer goods and services with increased efficiency comprising:

• a circular building having an inventory of merchandise therein, said building comprising a first portion which is stationary and a roof portion which is mounted for rotational movement about said first portion;
• a plurality of customer stations located on a movable track which is arranged around the exterior of said circular building, each customer station including a parking space for a single vehicle;
• a plurality of merchandise ordering devices located respectively at said plurality of customer stations, each of said ordering devices being usable by a person located at an associated one of said customer stations to order merchandise from said inventory;
• said stationary first portion of said circular building including at least one loading station for delivering merchandise, ordered by use of said ordering devices, to a vehicle located in a parking space adjacent to said loading station;
• a plurality of fuel dispensing stations located respectively at said plurality of customer stations for fueling vehicles that are located in said parking spaces;
• a plurality of merchandise displays disposed around the circumference of said circular building, said displays being viewable by persons located adjacent to said park spaces;
• and
• means for moving said track along a continuous path that is disposed in at least partially surrounding relation to said building so as to impart relative rotation between said first portion of said circular building and said customer stations thereby to cause each of said parked vehicles to move relative to said first portion of said building from a starting location parking space remote from said loading station to a finishing location adjacent said loading station in a predetermined time interval, said displays being cyclically exposed to persons at said customer stations during said time interval so that, by use of said ordering devices, a customer can select and order merchandise displayed by said displays as said relative rotation proceeds, said relative rotation being operative to successively position said loading station adjacent to each customer station for the delivery of the selected merchandise to a vehicle located adjacent to said loading station at the conclusion of said predetermined time interval.

A facility for vending vehicle fuel and consumer merchandise comprising:

• a circular building for storing consumer merchandise;
• a continually moving conveyor track extending from an entry location around the exterior of said building to an exit location, said conveyor track having a plurality of vehicle parking positions thereon for receiving vehicles and for conveying said vehicles in succession around said building from said entry location to said exit location in a predetermined time interval;
• said building comprising a stationary portion and a roof which is mounted for rotation in synchronism with the movement of said track around said stationary portion of said building;
• fuel dispensing means for delivering fuel to vehicles located at each of said plurality of parking positions;
• a plurality of ordering devices associated respectively with said plurality of parking positions, said ordering devices being arranged to move with said vehicle parking positions thereby to permit merchandise to be ordered from the vehicles during said predetermined time interval;
• means within said building for individually assembling merchandise that is ordered from each of said vehicles respectively;
• and
• means for delivering each order of assembled merchandise to an exit opening of said building located adjacent said exit location at a time synchronized with the time of arrival at said exit location of the vehicle from which said merchandise was ordered.