CA3013729A1 - Scannable recipe card to associate purchases with a recipe - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for use at a point of sale system to associate a unique activity code identifier such as a bar code to a set of items presented by the customer at the point of sale system for purchase. The activity code may be for a recipe or some other activity with a list of required materials. The merchant or other user of the point of sale system data may look for characteristics of purchase transactions by different customers that were buying supplies for the same activity code as indicated by the activity code captured at the time of the point of sale transaction.

Description

Scannable Recipe Card to Associate Purchases with a Recipe [0001] This application claims priority and incorporates by reference United States Patent Application No. 15/911,090 filed March 3, 2018 for Scannable Recipe Card to Associate Purchases with a Recipe and claims priority and incorporates by reference United States Provisional Patent Application No. 62/543,602 filed August 10, 2017 with title Method for Increasing Grocery Sales and Generating and Analyzing Sales Data.
BACKGROUND

[0002] Field of the Disclosure.

[0003] This disclosure provides an improvement to the field of Class 235 Registers, Subclass 375 Systems Controlled by Data Bearing Records. More particularly, this disclosure provides improvements to data bearing record structure sensed by point-of-sale register equipment including bar code scanners. More particularly, this disclosure relates generally to a printable template for a pre-defined shopping list of ingredients required to prepare a pre-defined recipe or menu, wherein said template also includes an identifier such as a barcode that operates to link the pre-defined shopping list to a transaction at point-of-sale, by scanning or inputting the identifier along with scanning the barcodes on items purchased at checkout.

[0004] More generally, the disclosure relates to a process to augment the collection of data from a sales transaction with a particular user for a particular sales transaction with an activity code that inspired the purchase of at least a subset of items purchased at this sales transaction.
The activity code could be a suggested menu, a particular recipe, or detailed instructions for a project not related to a meal, such as a sewing or craft project.

[0005] Point-of Sale Systems.

[0006] Point-of-sale systems are well known in the art. After a user has selected a set of items for purchase, the user proceeds to a check-out station. There with the assistance of a check-out clerk or through a self-checkout station, the set of items are tallied. This process frequently uses some interaction between the point-of-sale system and the items. The interaction may be reading barcodes or sensing RFID tags. As a backup, the system may allow data entry through a user interface.

[0007] Examples of items provided by a user interface include:
= Providing a code for a piece of produce ¨ such as a code for vine ripened tomatoes so that the code plus the weight of the tomatoes is used for price calculation.
= Manually entering a UPC code when the code on the product is not otherwise scannable.
= Manually entering a price when the item is on special discount.

[0008] The point-of sale system normally includes a card reader device (scanner) to allow a user to use a credit card or debit card to pay for the transaction. The card reader device may allow for reading a magnetic strip on the card or a chip on the card or both.
The card reader may allow for other interactions with the user such as providing a personal identification number (PIN), zip code, or other information.

[0009] Point-of-sale systems continue to evolve. Scanning systems under development will allow the consumer to simply push a cart filled with products past a scanning station to tally the list of items in the cart without the use of the traditional check-out station. Other systems may use computer vision and other tools to track what items were placed in the consumer's shopping cart. It is anticipated that there will continue to be evolution within the field of point-of-sale systems and the teachings of the present disclosure may be extended to any system capable of combining a tally of items purchased with a code for a particular activity that inspired at least a portion of the set of purchased items.
10010] Related Art.
10011] US Pat. No. 9.135.652.
[00121 A relevant and recent patent from Art Class 235 Registers is United States Pat. No.
9,135,652 issued September 15, 2015 for Scannable Recipe Card to Add Items to Shopping List assigned to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The '652 patent describes its solution as being relevant to Currently, shopping in a grocery store is a product-centric activity, wherein the customer may refer to a list of items to purchase that is compiled prior to entering the store. Creating a grocery shopping list from one or more recipes can be a cumbersome task and prone to mistakes, for example inadvertently leaving critical ingredients off the shopping list, thereby necessitating a repeat shopping trip to purchase the forgotten items.
With the advent and proliferation of miniaturized handheld computing devices, commonly known as "smart phones," a shopping trip can be made significantly more convenient to consumers by using an electronic shopping list software application (commonly known as an "app") installed on a smart phone. However, shopping list apps currently available generally do not include an automated and meal-centric way to input a shopping list into the smart phone. What is needed, therefore, is a method and system for automatically inputting groups of products into a shopping list, wherein the products correspond to ingredients in a selected recipe.

The present disclosure like the '652 works with an association between a recipe and a list of ingredients. Rather than pushing the list of ingredients from a selected recipe into a phone app grocery list as in the '652, the present disclosure teaches capturing a recipe or other project code at a point of sale and recording an association between the recipe code and the total collection of items purchased during that one transaction.
[00131 U.S. Pat. No. 8,214,246.
[0014] The prior art includes teachings for using the data collected by point-of-sale systems. United States Patent No. 8,214,246 is for a Method for performing retail sales analysis and is incorporated by reference herein. By aggregating a large number of sales transactions, the '246 teaches that various types of analysis can be performed by those with in interest in understanding current sales patterns and seeking to increase sales or profitability. Examples of analysis provided in the '246 include:
o Which of our last three promotions drove the largest increase in market share?
o What is the profile of a loyal Product X customer? What else do they buy?
o How are competitor brands/SKUs performing?
o What impact/effect did our new product launch have upon the category?
o In which stores should we undertake in-store sampling activities?
100151 As described more fully below, the present disclosure augments the information available for analysis so that systems such as that taught in the '246 can perform additional types of analysis. The present disclosure adds a new dimension of data collected at the point-of-sale, thereby creating three dimensions of data - customer, products purchased and recipe used, as opposed to two dimensions - customer and products purchased. This may be described as a three dimensional data cube as compared to a two dimensional data table, and the additional dimension provides for a fuller understanding of consumer preferences.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0016] One aspect of the teachings of the present disclosure is based on the utility of knowledge of what specific recipes grocery customers prepare and what ingredients they buy to prepare a recipe. Conventional grocery sales data analysis relies on identifying what products customers buy, which is obtained by tracking customer purchases at the point of sale.
Grocers also identify specific customers' purchases by scanning customer loyalty cards, and then target the identified customers for email or mail promotions, based on analysis of their purchases. However, current data analysis does not provide information on what customers prepare with the products purchased. This invention identifies what recipes customers are shopping to prepare, in addition to the conventional method of identifying the products they buy. It may be entirely anonymous or associated with identified customers. The claimed method has not been used in the manner disclosed by those in the field.
[0017] Cooking to a menu or recipe is a widespread pursuit in American culture, to the extent that at least two television networks are dedicated entirely to cooking. There are also several cooking magazines with subscription circulations of over 1,000,000 subscribers.
Grocers sell ingredients to prepare specific recipes, but they don't have a means to track what recipes their customers prepare. They know what customers buy, but they don't know what they're cooking.
[0018] For example, grocers know how many chickens a specific customer with a loyalty card buys in a year, but they do not know what recipes that customer prepares with the chickens.
This invention would create new information that would significantly improve grocer's capability to analyze their customers' purchases compared to the current, routine, conventional method of collecting sales data and customer names.
[0019] This invention capitalizes on the cooking market by providing a means to link recipes consumers prepare to the products they buy to prepare them. The matched recipe and products purchased data may also be linked to specific customers, or the new data may be entirely anonymous. The invention combines a pre-defined activity such as preparing a recipe, a pre-defined shopping list required to prepare the recipe and a unique identifier to link the grocery purchase transaction to the pre-defined shopping list. The link may be accomplished by inputting the unique identifier printed on the template at the point of sale. With nearly 40,000 grocery stores in the United States, and hundreds of transactions per store per day, an opportunity exists for very large amounts of market information to be created by the invention and captured by grocers, who may then analyze it and base marketing decisions on their analysis.
100201 Several sources of recipes and shopping lists exist, but none provide a means for a grocer to know what recipe a customer has shopped for at the point of sale.
This linked list creates a new dimension of information when the identifier and products are input at checkout.
This new dimension of information now allows analysis of sales on the basis of recipes in addition to the basis of identified customers and sales, which are the current methods. The new information may then be used to refine the promotion of recipe-shopping lists based on the anonymous preferences indicated by actual customers. Grocers would also know what other items consumers purchase when they shop for a given recipe, such as certain beverages or deserts. Marketing efforts may then be tailored to consumer behavior based on this new source of market intelligence. Recipes from any source, for instance a well-known cooking website, may be uniquely identified and tracked. The linked list would thereby also have utility to the authors of recipes.
[00211 The linked list and barcode or other identifier may be configured internally by a given retailer or the linked list and identifier could be configured by an external, independent author. An external author may create an identifier such as a barcode that could be universal and capable of use by any retailer. One configuration could be a hierarchy classification of a recipe such as:
1.0 = main ingredient (e.g. example chicken) 1.1 = main ingredient + cuisine (e.g. chicken + Italian) 1.1.1 = main ingredient + cuisine + general recipe (e.g. chicken + Italian +
Chicken Parrnigiana) 1.1.1.1 = main ingredient + cuisine + recipe + specific recipe author (e.g.
chicken + Italian + Chicken Parmigiana + Martha Stewart) 100221 The hierarchy of classification may vary in depth as determined by a user of the linked list. Note that the linked list may also provide utility for an individual recipe author, such that the author may also track the use of their recipe as they would a product for sale.
Note also that alternative embodiments may be utilized in other retail sectors for other pre-defined shopping lists, for instance in the home improvement sector for a pre-defined home improvement project, or in the home goods sector for a pre-college moving list. The linked list may function in print or in interne applications.
100231 Note that those of skill in the art will recognize that rather than having fields and subfields within a unique identifier to denote that this is a chicken recipe or the source was Martha Stewart that the unique identifier could be used without having fields and subfields and the unique identifier would be associated with an array of relevant information such as chicken recipe, Italian cuisine, Chicken Parmigiana, and source was Martha Stewart.
This array would be stored in a data storage form accessible by a computer such as a table, database, or other information storage format.
100241 In one aspect the invention relates to a standard sheet of paper, such as 8 1/2 inches by II inches. The paper is marked to be divided into multiple sections, such as four equal sections, and each section has information unique to the section marked thereon. The sheet is prepared by a grocer, cooking website, food product manufacturer or other author who creates several menus or recipes and the required shopping list to prepare the recipes. In the preferred embodiment, a standard 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch sheet of paper is divided into four sections, capable of being folded into a pocket-sized 4 x 5 1/2 inch pamphlet or card.
1) One or more of a plurality of available recipes is marked on a first section I of the sheet.
2) A shopping list of the required ingredients is entered on a second section 2 of the sheet.
3) A unique barcode or other identifier that identifies a shopping list for a certain menu or recipe is marked on section 3.
4) Space for additional items to be added to a shopping list by the customer or other information such as advertising is provided by section 4.
100251 Detailed recipes may be provided on the four sections on the back of the sheet, or referenced to other sources.

[0026] Shopping lists for one or more menus or recipes are made available at stores owned by a grocer or made available either in print or online by other authors. A
customer may obtain a recipe-list at a grocery store and use it immediately. Alternatively, a customer may pick up a recipe-list, return home with it, add items to it and return to the store to purchase the list.
Alternatively, a recipe-list template may be provided online and edited online by grocers, cooking websites, product manufacturers, customers themselves or other authors, printed by the customer and then used to purchase the items on the list. The online version may be accessed on a smart phone app and the entire process may be done on the app, including scanning the barcode at checkout (see below).
[0027] The customer purchases the items on the list and checks out. At checkout, the recipe-shopping list barcode is scanned along with the barcodes on the items purchased. A
store point-of-sale system thereby provides a means to associate the products purchased with a specific recipe-shopping list, and also records the use of the recipe-shopping list itself.
Optionally the recipe-shopping list may also be associated with a specific customer identifier, but the transaction may be kept entirely anonymous. Hundreds or thousands of such transactions per recipe-shopping list may be recorded, creating a database that may be analyzed to derive statistics based on each menu list. Such statistics may include:
1) whether a recipe-shopping list was used in a transaction, 2) which recipe-list is used most often;
3) which recipe-list produces the highest sales amount, or 4) what other items are purchased with a specific recipe-list.
[0028] Aspects of the teachings contained within this disclosure are addressed in the claims submitted with this application upon filing. Rather than adding redundant restatements of the contents of the claims, these claims should be considered incorporated by reference into this summary.
[0029] This summary is meant to provide an introduction to the concepts that are disclosed within the specification without being an exhaustive list of the many teachings and variations upon those teachings that are provided in the extended discussion within this disclosure. Thus, the contents of this summary should not be used to limit the scope of the claims that follow.
[0030] Inventive concepts are illustrated in a series of examples, some examples showing more than one inventive concept. Individual inventive concepts can be implemented without implementing all details provided in a particular example. It is not necessary to provide examples of every possible combination of the inventive concepts provided below as one of skill in the art will recognize that inventive concepts illustrated in various examples can be combined together in order to address a specific application.
[0031] Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the disclosed teachings will be immediately apparent or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within the scope of and be protected by the accompanying claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0032] The disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following figures. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views.

[0033] Fig. 1 is a front plan view of a menu-shopping list having a barcode or other identifier;
[0034] Fig. 2 is a flow diagram of a method showing how the menu-shopping list is used for increasing grocery sales and creating and analyzing sales data according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0035] The presently disclosed subject matter is described with specificity to meet statutory requirements. However, the description itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent.
Rather, the inventor has contemplated that the claimed subject matter might also be embodied in other ways, to include different steps or elements similar to the ones described in this document, in conjunction with other present or future technologies. Moreover, although the term "step" may be used herein to connote different aspects of methods employed, the term should not be interpreted as implying any particular order among or between various steps herein disclosed unless and except when the order of individual steps is explicitly described.
[0036] Having briefly described the invention, the same will become better understood from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments.
[00371 Fig. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a shopping list 100 that a grocer would provide in accordance with the invention. There may be four sections. The menu section 110 would be one of many options for different menus 114 or recipes. The menu section 110 may include an identifying link 118 such as a URL or a barcode that allows the user to pull up a specific recipe for use in the menu 114. Alternatively, the main item in this section may be a specific part of a menu such as the main course or the dessert. For example, the card 100 may be focused on the ingredients for bceuf bourguignon as the user does not need the card to address the other items to be served such as a fresh salad and bread from a specialty bread store down the street.
[0038] The shopping list section 120 would have the shopping list 124.
The shopping list 124 provides the specific items required to prepare the menu or recipe.
[0039] An additional items section 140 provides the shopper with a convenient place to add other needed items.
[0040] Finally, a section 130 includes the barcode 134 that identifies the specific menu-shopping list. This barcode 134 may be scanned to link an individual transaction as the check-out of the store to a specific menu-shopping list.
[0041] The 8 1/2 by 11 inch standard sheet may be folded twice into a convenient 4 x 5 1/2 pocket-sized pamphlet or card. Note that while an 8 1/2 by 11 inch standard sheet could be used in accordance with the teachings of this disclosure, other paper sizes could be used including standard metric sizes and non-standard paper sizes.
[0042] Fig. 2 is a flow diagram 11 illustrating the use of a shopping 100 of Fig. 1.
[0043] In a first branch, action 15 is the prefilled list is obtained at a store where the customer uses it immediately to purchase items on the list. For example, the seafood department may have a suggested recipe for a particular seafood product ¨
Orange Roughy, and suggested side items and wine to accompany the dinner. The user would merely need to scale the purchase from the suggested amounts for four people up or down to adjust for the number of diners and possibly for their proclivity to seek second helpings.

[0044] Alternatively, in the second branch path, the action 17 is that the customer obtains the shopping list 100 at the store and takes the shopping list 100 home to add items, and then returns to shop with an expanded list.
[0045] Alternatively, in the third branch path, the action 19 that the shopping list 100 is obtained online or from some other source such as a magazine, a subscription program that mails recipe lists, or another non-store source and the customer uses the shopping list 100 either as is or with modifications. Note, the online version may be accessed on a smart phone app and the entire process may be done on the app, including scanning the barcode at checkout (see below).
[0046] At the store, the action 21 is that the customer purchases at least some of the items on the list, possibly all of the items on the list, or some other combination such as some of the items plus other items. Tracking the use of the list and what the customer buys is potentially useful to allow the grocery store owner to determine which menu-shopping lists result in the greatest number of total sales, establish promotions, etc.
[00471 At action block 23, the customer then checks out. The point of sale system collects a list of what items are purchased during this trip to the store and collects that barcode that is a unique identifier for this specific menu or recipe card. Thus, the information of which items sold is associated with specific menus is collected through scanning and stored on the store's network to create a database.
[0048] In action block 25, the database which includes the sales transactions connected to the particular barcode values 134 are analyzed.
[0049] In action block 27, the analysis from action block 25 leads to strategy adjustments.
Some of the strategy adjustments may impact the creation of the lists 100 with respect to store provided lists 100 or by advertising with non-store sources for lists 100 so that the store ad is visible when a user is obtaining a list.
100501 The range of strategy adjustments is extensive. Non-limiting examples include:
= Menus for vegan meals may be made available for one person if the process notes that the typical vegan menu has a number of purchases that are scaled down from the base level of two adult diners.
= Menus for certain items may be resealed for additional diners if it becomes apparent that these items are usually made for special events where there are six, eight, or more diners.
= Wine suggestions may be moved to wines of a particular price point based on the wines frequently purchased with a particular menu. For example the price point of the wine suggested to go with a menu using lobster tails may be adjusted upward while the price point of wine suggestions to accompany tilapia may be adjusted downward.
= A national chain that has a recipe for apple pie may find that the stores in certain regions should suggest vanilla ice cream to accompany the pie while other stores in another region may suggest slices of cheddar cheese.
[00511 The barcode 134 or other identifier may be configured in a hierarchy of classification that provides a basis of aggregation and analysis by the grocer. Or the barcode could allow the grocer to obtain the classification information from a data base. The computer network used by the store may be conventional and includes standard computers, databases and the like. Software such as statistical analysis software can be used to analyze trends tied to menus use and increased sales.
[0052] The method of using the menu of the invention provides that at checkout at a grocery store, all items purchased by a purchaser in a database are scanned and recorded on a point-of-sale database system. The barcode 134 on a card 100 for specific menu-shopping list is scanned before, during, or after the actions to record the items purchased.
In the computer database system the items purchased with the specific menu¨shopping list for which the barcode 134 was scanned are associated with the menu-shopping list. The information associating the items purchased with a specific menu is then stored in a database comprised of data linking purchases with specific menus. By later analyzing the collected data adjustments can be made in the menu-shopping lists to increase sales.

[0054] Alternative Sheet Sizes.
[0055] In an alternative embodiment, the sheet of paper may be a different size, include a different number of sections and may or may not be folded.
[0056] Menu May Not Be A Full Menu.
[0057] In another alternative embodiment, the menu-shopping list may include just one recipe. The rest of the process would work the same whether the process is for an entire meal based upon Orange Roughy as the entree or the card is limited to obtaining the ingredients to make bceuf bourguignon.

[0058] Unique Identifier Need Not Be A Barcode.
[0059] In another embodiment, the menu identifying barcode may be replaced with a different type of identifier, such as a name or a recipe code number that may be entered in the point-of-sale system.
[0060] Additional Information May Be Provided.
[0061] In other embodiments, other information might include recipes, cooking schedules, links to cooking websites, advertisements, promotions and other references.
[0062] The Idea May Be Used For Other Non-Edible Projects.
[0063] In other embodiments, the invention may be used in other retail sectors to track the use of a pre-defined shopping list for a home improvement project shopping list, a pre-college relocation shopping list, a sewing project, a craft project, or some other idea which would have a logical bill of materials and possibly related components.
[0064] Implementation In A Software Application Would Not Have A Folded Card.
[0065] Those of skill in the art will recognize that the transference of the teachings of the present disclosure to an application such as a phone app would result in changes in the presentation. Various sections of card 100 may be translated to one or more screens of the phone app. The phone app may provide the unique identifier by a scannable barcode as is known in the art. The phone app may communicate with the point of sale system with other short range wireless communication systems instead of using a barcode. The teachings of the present disclosure are not limited to the particular form of conveyance of the unique identifier for the menu or recipe to the point of sale system.

[0066] Barcode Not Limited To A Specific Type or Barcode.
[0067] As would be known to those of skill in the art, a number of barcode formats exist and the technology continues to evolve. Thus, the format used in Uniform Product Code (UPC) and other one dimensional bar codes reliant on the width of bars may be used.
Likewise barcodes that use rectangles, dots, hexagons, and other geometric patterns which are called two-dimensional barcodes may be used.
[0068] Other Unique Identifiers.
[0069] Those of skill in the art recognize that other unique identifiers are already used in connection with point-of-sale systems such as RFID systems, credit card reader systems (both strip and chip), and other systems. Credit card readers already accept numeric strings for personal identification numbers (PIN) or zip codes. These readers could be used to receive a numeric code that provides the unique activity code. Those of skill in the art can translate the teaching of the present disclosure to use a unique activity identifier that is easily read by a point-of-sale system by a process other than barcodes.
[0070] No Reliance on Customer ID Number.
[0071] While many point-of-sale systems make heavy reliance on a unique customer ID
number (or possibly a shared number that identifies a family), the teachings of the present disclosure are useful whether or not a customer ID number is captured with the sales transaction. While those of skill in the art will recognize that having additional information provides additional avenues for marketing, it is not required here.

[0072] Thus, while noting that a particular customer uses menu codes that indicate a preference for Italian cuisine might be useful for targeted advertising to the customer email or even coupons issued at point-of-sale transactions, there are uses for shopping transactions augmented by activity codes that do not require knowledge of the customer.
[0073] A store may note that many of the activity codes are coming from a particular source such as Martha Stewart's magazine or a particular menu planning site on the internet. This may impact the decisions about where to place ads. Likewise, a store may note that a small percentage of transactions are linked to activity codes that indicate an origin from a particular source but these transactions are unusually profitable as the size of the order or the average margin on items purchased is unusually high. This may lead to targeted advertising and does not require knowledge of the identities of the purchasers.
[0074] Having thus described the invention in detail, the same will become better understood from the appended claims in which it is set forth in a non-limiting manner.
[0075] One of skill in the art will recognize that some of the alternative implementations set forth above are not universally mutually exclusive and that in some cases additional implementations can be created that employ aspects of two or more of the variations described above. Likewise, the present disclosure is not limited to the specific examples or particular embodiments provided to promote understanding of the various teachings of the present disclosure. Moreover, the scope of the claims which follow covers the range of variations, modifications, and substitutes for the components described herein as would be known to those of skill in the art.

[0076] Where methods and/or events described above indicate certain events and/or procedures occurring in certain order, the ordering of certain events and/or procedures may be modified. Additionally, certain events and/or procedures may be performed concurrently in a parallel process when possible, as well as performed sequentially as described above.
100771 The legal limitations of the scope of the claimed invention are set forth in the claims that follow and extend to cover their legal equivalents. Those unfamiliar with the legal tests for equivalency should consult a person registered to practice before the patent authority which granted this patent such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office or its counterpart.

Claims (24)

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for associating an activity code to a set of purchases at a point-of-sale information collection system; the method comprising:
collecting a set of identification code for a collection of items presented by a user for purchase at a first purchase event; and collecting from the user a unique identifier for an activity code for an activity that guided a set of purchasing decisions by the user that represent at least a subset of the collection of items presented by the user for purchase at the first purchase event; and associating the activity code with the set of identification codes from the first purchase event such that the set of identification codes for the collection of items presented by the user for purchase at first purchase event is linked to the unique identifier for the activity code that guided the set of purchasing decisions by the user for at least a subset of the collection of items.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the activity code is for preparation of at least a subset of a meal and at least some of the collection of items are components used in preparing an edible item forming at least the subset of the meal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the activity code is for a set of actions for preparation of an inedible tangible object not intended to be presented as part of a meal.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein collecting from the user the unique identifier for the activity code for the activity that guided the set of purchasing decisions by the user includes having a scanner at the point-of-sale information collection system read information on a physical card carried by the user for use by the user in obtaining at least a subset of the collection of items presented by the user for purchase at the first purchase event in preparation for engaging in the activity associated with the unique identifier.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the information read by the scanner at the point-of-sale information collection system is a barcode.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the information read by the point-of-sale information collection system is conveyed by RFID.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein collecting from the user the unique identifier for the activity code uses a subset of the point-of-sale information collection system used to collect credit card information from the user.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein collecting from the user the unique identifier for the activity code includes receiving a set of numbers input from the user on the subset of the point-of-sale information collection system used to collect credit card information from the user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the unique identifier for the activity code is present on a communication device associated with the user and conveyed to the point-of-sale information collection system.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein a barcode scanner receives the activity code from the communication device.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the communication device provides the activity code to the point-of-sale information collection system via wireless communication.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the unique identifier for the activity code contains at least one field that can be used to discern a characteristic about the activity associated with the activity code.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the unique identifier for the activity code does not contain at least one field that can be used to discern a characteristic about the activity associated with the activity code, so that characteristics about the activity associated with the activity code must be accessed from a computer-based data storage file through use of the unique identifier for the activity code.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein an aggregation of identification codes for the collection of items presented by a first set of users that presented a first particular activity code is compared with an aggregation of identification codes for the collection of items presented by a second set of users that presented a second particular activity code to generate a range of sales and marketing statistics.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein an aggregation of identification codes for the collection of items presented by a first set of users that presented a first set of activity codes with a first commonality is compared with an aggregation of identification codes for the collection of items presented by a second set of users that presented a second set of activity codes with a second commonality different from the first commonality to generate a range of sales and marketing statistics.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein first commonality is a first source of activity codes and the second commonality is a second source of activity codes.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein first commonality is a first primary ingredient for the first set of activity codes and the second commonality is a second primary ingredient for the second set of activity codes.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein first commonality is a first cuisine type for the first set of activity codes and the second commonality is a second cuisine type for the second set of activity codes.

19. A shopping list template with an identifier for linking a pre-defined shopping list to a transaction and allowing tracking of the use of a shopping list and associated retail store purchases, comprising:
a sheet of material having a surface which can be written or printed on, said sheet subdivided into multiple sections, or a computer software program application containing the same sections and being accessible by a computer, or mobile device, comprising a) a first section having a menu, a recipe, multiple recipes or a name of some other pre-defined shopping list, or references to internet links to recipes, or a name of some other pre-defined shopping list printed thereon;

b) a second section having a shopping list of ingredients needed to prepare said menu or recipe(s) or items referenced to the name of some other pre-defined shopping list printed thereon; and c) a third section having a shopping list identifier, such as a barcode, or other shopping list identifier such as a name or a code number, printed thereon that may be scanned or otherwise input into a store's point of-sale system, which identifies a specific shopping list, providing a means of linking the shopping list with the items purchased in a given transaction in the store's data base.

20. The shopping list identifier in claim 19, wherein said identifier is an internally produced barcode or other number or keyed identifier, configured such that it classifies a recipe into a category defined by the retailer, and the identifier may entered at the point-of-sale to link individual transactions to the identifier, and subsequently aggregated by classification.

21. The shopping list identifier in claim 19, wherein the identifier is an externally produced barcode or other identifier that may be registered with any store, configured such that it classifies a recipe into a category, and the identifier may be entered at the point-of-sale to link individual transactions to the identifier, and subsequently aggregated by classification.

22. The identifier in claim 19, wherein the identifier is configured in a hierarchy of classification that identify ingredient, cuisine, general recipe, specific author or other layers of classification in as many layers of depth an author or user desires.

23. The menu/recipe-shopping list template in claim 19, wherein a fourth section or more additional sections are added containing additional information related to the recipes or shopping list, or additional items to be purchased, or advertising, marketing or promotional information or other information.

24. A method for using said menu/recipe-shopping list template in claim 19, comprising:
displaying said recipe- shopping list to customers in a grocery store or otherwise making said menu-list available to customers, and/or loading said menu/recipe-shopping list template on a website accessible by customers online via a computer, tablet, or mobile device or application;
scanning the barcodes on the products purchased by use of a menu/recipe shopping list on a grocer's point-of-sale system;
scanning said menu/recipe-shopping list barcode at checkout on a grocer's point-of-sale system, or entering another type of identifier such as a recipe name or a code number in a grocer's point-of-sale system;
storing on a computer database system said barcodes for the products purchased and said barcode or other identifier identifying said menu/recipe-shopping list;
associating by data analysis function a menu/recipe-shopping list barcode, or other identifier, with the products purchased barcodes in a transaction, or aggregating in the database the data for all transactions utilizing each identified menu-shopping list; and analyzing by database function the aggregated data for each said menu/recipe-shopping list.