Distribution of products

Abstract

Among other things, information is maintained that associates competitors with respective territories for which the competitors have rights that are to be exclusive relative to other competitors for items associated with the territories. A user can enter, through a user interface, an expression of interest that can be associated with one of the territories. In response to the expression of interest, a user is automatically enabled to interact with the competitor that has the exclusive right to the territory, without automatically enabling the user to interact with a competitor that does not have the exclusive right.

1 . A method comprising
 maintaining information on a server that associates liquor stores with respective geographic territories, each of the liquor stores having exclusive rights, relative to other liquor stores, to deliver alcohol in one of the geographic territories, each of the liquor stores having a geographic location,   enabling a human customer having a geographic location other than the geographic locations of the liquor stores to interact with a user interface on a first device to generate an order for a delivery of alcohol,   determining that the order is associated with one of the territories based on the geographic location of the customer,   automatically causing the user interface on the first device to be configured so that the order generated by the customer will be an order to the liquor store that has the exclusive right to deliver the alcohol in the associated territory,   enabling, through a user interface on a second device, a representative of the liquor store, to verify or authenticate or both a government-issued identification of the customer, and   if the government-issued identification of the customer is successfully verified or authenticated or both, confirming to the representative of the liquor store that the alcohol can be delivered to the customer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  in which parameters of the geographic territories are stored in a database, the parameters defined by at least one of longitude, latitude, and zip code. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  in which the database associates store codes with geographic territories, the store codes representing respective liquor stores. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  in which the geographic location of the human customer is determined based on geo-location of the first device. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  in which the geographic location of the human customer is determined based on a delivery address. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  comprising configuring the first interface to enable the user to make a payment before the alcohol is delivered. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  in which the payment is effected through a payment gateway. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  in which the human customer is not able to generate the order for the delivery of alcohol until the human customer provides credit card information to a payment gateway. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  in which the territory comprises one or more identified products. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  in which the territory comprises one or more identified brands. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  in which the configured user interface on the first device is presented to the human customer, on behalf of the liquor store that has the exclusive right, by a party that is independent of the liquor store that has the exclusive right. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  comprising presenting advertising or promotions to the human customer through the user interface. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  in which the alcohol is delivered from the liquor store that has the exclusive right. 
     
     
         14 . A method comprising
 presenting a list of products to a customer through a first user interface on a first device, the products including alcohol offered for sale by a liquor store that has an exclusive right to deliver alcohol in a territory to which the customer belongs,   relaying an order to a second device located at the liquor store, the order including a request by the customer for a subset of the products to be delivered to a location outside the liquor store, and   providing a mobile facility that a driver can use to help verify an identity and age of the customer prior to delivery of the subset of products, the mobile facility capable of verifying or authenticating or both a driver's license belonging to the customer.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  comprising leasing the exclusive right to the liquor store. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14  in which the first user interface is white-labeled to represent the store that has the exclusive right. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14  in which the list of products includes only products in stock based on an electronic inventory of the liquor store. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14  comprising updating an electronic inventory of the liquor store by subtracting units of the subset of products from the electronic inventory. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14  comprising presenting advertisements or promotions to the customer through the user interface. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14  comprising tracking a physical location of the subset of products as it is transported by the driver to the customer. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  comprising relaying the physical location of the subset of products to the first device as it is transported by the driver. 
     
     
         22 . An apparatus comprising
 a server that (a) communicates with devices at liquor stores and mobile devices of customers of the liquor stores, and (b) manages mutually exclusive rights of respective liquor stores to deliver alcohol to customers at locations in respective territories of the liquor stores; and   applications or websites or both that (a) enable representatives of the liquor stores to verify or authenticate or both government-issued identification of the customers, and (b) enable the liquor stores to manage deliveries and inventories of alcohol.   
     
     
         23 . The apparatus of  claim 22  in which the applications or websites enable the server to collect tracking information regarding delivery of alcohol to the respective customers. 
     
     
         24 . The apparatus of  claim 23  in which at least some of the tracking information is communicated to the mobile devices of customers. 
     
     
         25 . The apparatus of  claim 22  in which the server manages payments from the customers to the liquor stores. 
     
     
         26 . A method comprising
 receiving, through a communication network, at a liquor store that has a geographic location, an order from a human customer for delivery of alcohol, the customer having a geographic location that is within a geographic territory in which the liquor store has an exclusive right, relative to other liquor stores, to deliver alcohol,   the liquor store having received the order as a result of a process executed at a server that associated the geographic location of the customer with the geographic territory of the liquor store,   a representative of the liquor store transporting the alcohol from the liquor store to the customer,   at the geographic location of the customer, the representative authenticating or verifying or both a government-issued identification of the customer, through a user interface of a mobile device, and   if the authentication or verification or both are successful, the representative of liquor store delivering the alcohol to the customer.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26  further comprising the representative notifying the liquor store that the delivery was successful.