This invention relates to a machine for automatically retrieving and dispensing a selected container from a store of containers and for receiving and storing a container which is returned to the machine. The invention is particularly useful as a vending machine for video cassettes and the like which are dispensed for the temporary usage of a person and which must be returned and stored in the machine for subsequent dispensing.
In the recent years the increased usage of video cassette recorders (VCR's) to play prerecorded programming, primarily in the form of popular movies, has resulted in a large rental market for such video cassettes. The distribution chain for video cassette rentals has primarily been through a plethora of video cassette rental stores which have opened all over the country to meet this demand. A typical transaction involves going into one of such video cassette rental stores, engaging a sales person to orally request a selected movie, often after waiting in a long line, and if the selected video cassette is in stock completing a rental transaction. Upon returning the rented video cassette to the store often times it is again necessary to engage a sales person, possibly after waiting in another line, to settle the rental account. In short, the principal mechanism which has developed in the market place for the rental of video cassettes is often time consuming and inconvenient.
Because of its relatively small size, the standard video cassette is capable of being disposed by a vending machine. In fact, applicant is aware of one such vending machine which has been developed for this purpose. This known video cassette vending machine is basically a cigarette-type vending machine which has been modified to accommodate video cassettes. This machine contains a limited store of cassette movie titles which are selected and dispensed in a manner similar to the selection and dispensing of a package of cigarettes. That is, the machine dispenses the selected video cassette by dropping the cassette from a column of like titles to a platform located below the column where the person making the selection can remove the cassette from the machine. After completing the use of the cassette, the customer returns the cassette by depositing it in a storage bin associated with the machine. In order to position the cassette for subsequent dispensing, an operator must physically open the machine and place the cassettes contained in the storage bin in a respective one of the columns associated with the various movie titles.
The above described cassette vending machine has several disadvantages. As noted above, the design of the machine permits it to dispense only a limited number of titles. Second, the cassettes are subject to being damaged in the dispensing process when they are dropped to the platform and again when they are returned to the machine and dropped into the storage bin. Further, the machine requires constant oversight by an operator in order to store the returned cassettes in the appropriate position so that they can be later dispensed.