Abstract: Some embodiments provide apparatuses and methods useful to providing control over movement of motorized transport units. In some embodiments, an apparatus providing control over movement of motorized transport units at a shopping facility comprises: a central computer system comprising: a transceiver; a control circuit; a memory coupled to the control circuit and storing computer instructions that when executed by the control circuit cause the control circuit to perform the steps of: obtain, from one or more of the communications received from the motorized transport unit, route condition information comprising information corresponding to an intended route of travel; obtain additional route condition information detected by one or more detectors external to the motorized transport unit; detect an object affecting the intended route of travel; identify an action to be taken by the motorized transport unit with respect to the detected object; and communicate one or more instructions.

Abstract: A central computer system is configured to simultaneously task various ones of a plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in a retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that are included with at least some of the motorized transport units to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility. By one approach, the central computer system identifies security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping center by characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected and as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful. So configured the central computer system is able to not only identify anomalies but assess a degree of threat posed by a given anomaly.

Abstract: A housing contains a plurality of motorized transport units in a stacked relationship to one another, with a bottom-most one of the plurality of motorized transport units serving as a locomotion mechanism that selectively causes movement of the housing with the plurality of motorized transport units contained therein. By one approach the aforementioned housing has a cylindrical form factor and includes a cylindrically-shaped chamber configured to receive the motorized transport units, By one approach, for example, this housing includes no lifting mechanism to lift any of the motorized transport units into itself and further has no integral locomotion mechanism by which the housing can move itself. The interior of the housing can include at least one track formed therein to receive a corresponding part of each of the plurality of motorized transport units which the motorized transport units can engage to thereby lift themselves into the interior of the housing.

Abstract: A product display surface supports at least one product being offered for sale thereon. This product display surface has a weight-sensitive RFID tag associated therewith. This tag has at least one transmission element that moves with respect to a remaining portion of the tag as a function of weight being supported by the product display surface. So configured, the weight-sensitive RFID tag transmits at a first level when there are no products (or only a few products) on the product display surface and at a second level when there are at least a predetermined number of products on the product display surface, the first transmission level being less than the second transmission level. An RFID-tag reader reads the weight-sensitive RFID tag and a control circuit determines when the first product display surface lacks sufficient displayed inventory as a function, at least in part, of the weight-sensitive RFID tag's transmission strength.

Abstract: An unattended retail storefront that is installed in a consumer's residence. The unattended retail storefront includes an unsold product display and storage area, a retail-access portal that provides selective access from within the consumer's residence to the unsold product display and storage area to thereby provide a consumer in the consumer's residence with physical shopping access to the unsold product display and storage area, and an inventory-loading portal that provides selective access from outside the consumer's residence to the unsold product display and storage area, to thereby provide a retail enterprise with inventory-maintenance access to the unsold product display and storage area. Part or all of the unsold product display in storage area may be refrigerated. One or both of the aforementioned portals may be lockable as desired. By one approach the retail-access portal can be configured to automatically lock when the inventory-loading portal is opened.

Abstract: In some embodiments, methods and systems for fulfilling consumer orders are provided. A stocking station includes at least one robotic stocking arm configured to unload a product from a first receptacle and to place the unloaded product onto a storage shelf, and a first picking station includes a first robotic picking arm configured to pick a first product from the storage shelf and to load the first product picked from the storage shelf into a second receptacle for delivery to a consumer. An empty receptacle placement station includes at least one robotic placing arm configured to place an empty second receptacle onto a packing conveyor configured to transport the empty second receptacle toward the first picking station for loading of the first product into the empty second receptacle. An electronic inventory management device transmits a signal the empty receptacle placement station and the first robotic picking arm.

Abstract: A communication system comprises a mobile reporting device and a server. The mobile reporting device comprises a signal receiver configured to receive data usable to determine the location of the reporting device; a communication module configured to transmit data to and receive data from a server, the data including location data from the location determiner; a display including a user interface.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for providing recipe suggestions. In one embodiment, a system for recipe suggestion comprises a customer inventory information database, a recipe database, a communication device configured to communicate with a user device; and a control circuit coupled to the customer inventory information database, the recipe database, and the communication device The control circuit is configured to collect and update customer inventory information stored in the customer inventory information database, select one or more recommended recipes from the recipe database to recommend to a customer based on at least a customer inventory information associated with the customer, and for each recommended recipe comprising one or more missing ingredients not in a customer inventory according to the customer inventory information database: cause the user device to display a purchase suggestion of the one or more missing ingredients to the customer.

Abstract: Some embodiments provide apparatuses and methods useful to providing control over movement of motorized transport units. In some embodiments, an apparatus providing control over movement of motorized transport units at a shopping facility comprises: a central computer system comprising: a transceiver; a control circuit; a memory coupled to the control circuit and storing computer instructions that when executed by the control circuit cause the control circuit to perform the steps of: obtain, from one or more of the communications received from the motorized transport unit, route condition information comprising information corresponding to an intended route of travel; obtain additional route condition information detected by one or more detectors external to the motorized transport unit; detect an object affecting the intended route of travel; identify an action to be taken by the motorized transport unit with respect to the detected object; and communicate one or more instructions.

Abstract: A control circuit selects at least one particular one of a plurality of products to present to a particular customer as a candidate for automatic periodic shipping as a function, at least in part, of partiality vectors for that particular customer and vectorized characterizations for each of a plurality of products. These vectorized characterizations can each indicate a measure regarding an extent to which a corresponding one of the products accords with a corresponding one of the plurality of partiality vectors. The foregoing information can be stored in a memory to which the control circuit operably couples.

Abstract: Autonomous vehicles such as UAVs or cars provide network access points. User devices connect to the network access points and network access is monitored. User location data is also monitored. A profile of the user is generated from the gathered data. Advertisements are selected based on a profile of the user and the current location of the user. The autonomous vehicles may be distributed geographically to provide a network access to a geographic area. In response to detecting that a user device is moving out of a coverage area of an autonomous vehicle, nearby autonomous vehicles are identified. If the user device is in the coverage area of a nearby autonomous vehicle, the network connection to the user device is transferred to that vehicle.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to transporting containers using an autonomous dolly. Some of these embodiments include systems for transporting containers along delivery paths comprising: an autonomous dolly having a microcontroller and a support portion configured to carry a plurality of containers; a mobile device with a microcontroller in communication with the microcontroller of the dolly; and one or more sensors in communication with the mobile device, the one or more sensors and mobile device configured to triangulate the location of the mobile device; wherein the dolly's microcontroller is configured to receive tracking information from the mobile device's microcontroller and to cause the dolly to follow the mobile device along a delivery path defined by movement of the mobile device from a starting point to an ending point.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for providing audio notification. A system for providing audio notification comprises a communication device configured to communicate with a delivery arrival detection system, a doorbell coupler configured to couple to a stationary doorbell device, and a control circuit coupled to the communication device and the doorbell coupler. The control circuit being configured to receive a delivery notification from the delivery arrival detection system via the communication device and cause the stationary doorbell device to produce an audible sound via the doorbell coupler.

Abstract: In some embodiments, methods and systems of facilitating movement of product-containing pallets include at least one forklift unit configured to lift and move the product-containing pallets, at least one motorized transport unit configured to mechanically engage and disengage a respective forklift unit, and a central computer system in communication with the at least one motorized transport unit. The central computer system is configured to transmit at least one signal to the at least one motorized transport unit. The signal is configured to cause the at least one motorized transport unit to control the at least one forklift unit to move at least one of the product-containing pallets.

Abstract: A plurality of retail shopping facilities include a first retail shopping facility. A central computer system identifies a lack of a sufficient number of a particular item at that first retail shopping facility and identifies a candidate pool of other retail shopping facilities of that plurality of retail shopping facilities that have the particular item. The central computer system then eliminates any of the other retail shopping facility that have a sufficient sales trend for the particular item to warrant that exclusion. These teachings then provide for arranging to transfer the particular item from the filtered candidate pool (i.e., one or more of the retail shopping facilities included within the filtered candidate pool).

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for analyzing social media messages for inventory management. A system for analyzing social media messages comprises a communication device, an item identifier database, an inventory database, and a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to aggregate a plurality of social media messages, identify a plurality of messages of interest associated with customers seeking items to purchase, for each message of interest of the plurality of messages of interest: identify an item of interest based on comparing a text of the message of interest with identifying texts in the item identifier database, and identify a customer location associated with the message of interest; determine an item in demand for a geographic location, determine a stock information of the item in demand in the geographic location, and automatically generate an order for the item in demand to be stocked at the geographic location.

Abstract: A central computer system receive a voice input comprising a motorized transport unit command from a system user via a particular user interface unit that is associated with a particular motorized transport unit at a shopping facility. In response the central computer system transmits to the user interface unit a motorized transport unit instruction that corresponds to the motorized transport unit command, such that the user interface unit can then provide that motorized transport unit instruction to the motorized transport unit for execution by the motorized transport unit. By one approach these components can interact with one another to facilitate a verbally-based authentication procedure by which the system user is associated with the motorized transport unit.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for dynamic inventory management. A system for dynamic layaway inventory management comprises a layaway contract database, an inventory database, and a control circuit. The control circuit being configured to periodically: aggregate a plurality of layaway contracts in the layaway contract database to determine convey locations and convey dates for one or more units of an item, determine inventory unit counts of the item at a plurality of item locations based on inventory information stored in the inventory database, determine a layaway reserve unit count for each of the plurality of item locations based on the convey locations and the convey dates for the one or more units of the item and the inventory unit counts of the item at the plurality of item locations, and cause a number of available units of the item to be adjusted based on the layaway reserve unit count.

Abstract: In some embodiments, a receptacle for storing one or more products discarded by a consumer includes a side wall defining a receptacle opening for receiving a product, a closed bottom end, and an interior cavity configured to retain the product. The receptacle may include a product detecting sensor configured to detect the product proximate the receptacle opening, a product weight sensor configured to detect a weight of the product retained in the interior cavity, and a control unit in communication with the product detecting sensor and the product weight sensor. The control unit may be configured to obtain sensor data from the product detecting sensor and the product weight sensor, identify the product based on the obtained sensor data, and add the identified product to a shopping list of the consumer. Methods of adding a product discarded by a consumer to a shopping list of the consumer are also described.

Abstract: Apparatuses, components and methods are provided herein useful to provide assistance to customers and/or workers in a shopping facility. In some embodiments, a shopping facility personal assistance system comprises: a plurality of motorized transport units located in and configured to move through a shopping facility space; a plurality of user interface units, each corresponding to a respective motorized transport unit during use of the respective motorized transport unit; and a central computer system having a network interface such that the central computer system wirelessly communicates with one or both of the plurality of motorized transport units and the plurality of user interface units, wherein the central computer system is configured to control movement of the plurality of motorized transport units through the shopping facility space based at least on inputs from the plurality of user interface units.