Cashierless shopping store and components for use therein

A method of shopping for items comprising the steps of:

• scanning item price and weight data from selected items to be purchased using a portable shopping terminal;
• placing said selected items into a shopping cart;
• detecting the weight of each selected item as each selected item is placed in said shopping cart;
• transmitting the weight of each selected item over a wireless communication link to said shopping terminal;
• in the shopping terminal, comparing the scanned weight data for each selected item with the received detected weight to determine if the scanned weight data and received detected weight correlate;
• measuring the total weight of selected items placed in said shopping cart and transmitting the measured total weight over a wireless communications link to said shopping terminal;
• and
• in the shopping terminal, comparing the measured total weight with the sum of all of the weight data scanned from said selected items.

A shopping cart comprising:

• a wheeled carriage;
• a hopper removably supported on said carriage into which items to be purchased are placed, said hopper being partitioned into a plurality of compartments, each of said compartments for receiving a bag into which items may be placed during shopping;
• a weight sensor to detect the weight of items placed in said hopper, said weight sensor including a load cell on said wheeled carriage and on which said hopper rests;
• and
• a wireless communication module responsive to said load cell to transmit detected weight information over a wireless communication link.

A cashierless shopping store comprising:

• a plurality of shopping carts into which selected items to be purchased are placed by shoppers, each of said shopping carts including a weight detector to measure the weight of items placed therein and a transmitter to transmit the measured weight over a wireless communications link;
• a portable wireless shopping terminal accompanying each of said shopping carts, each shopping terminal reading item price and item weight data from each selected item to be purchased and receiving the measured weight of each selected item transmitted over said wireless communications link by said transmitter, said shopping terminal comparing the read item weight data with the transmitted measured weight to determine if the read item weight data and transmitted measured weight for each selected item correlate;
• and
• at least one checkout station including a scale to measure the total weight of selected items in a shopping cart and a transmitter to transmit the measured total weight over said wireless communications link to the shopping terminal accompanying that shopping cart, said shopping terminal comparing the measured total weight with the sum of the read item weight data to determine if said weights correlate.