System and method for communicating vending information

1. A method of inventory rebalancing comprising the steps of:

receiving inventory data from a first vending controller disposed within a first vending apparatus, the inventory data comprising a listing of vendible media products within the first vending apparatus and data representing the percent of time that each vendible media product has been stored within the first vending apparatus over a fixed period of time;

receiving inventory data from a second vending controller disposed within a second vending apparatus, the inventory data comprising a listing of vendible media products within the second vending apparatus and data representing the percent of time that each vendible media product has been stored within the second vending apparatus over the fixed period of time;

determining from the inventory data a subset of high-demand vendible media products, wherein the percent of time that each high-demand vendible media product has been stored within its respective vending apparatus over the fixed period of time is less than a pre-determined value;

determining from the inventory data a disparity between the quantity of vendible media products within the subset contained within the first vending apparatus and the quantity of vendible media products within the subset contained within the second vending apparatus; and

relocating one or more of the high-demand vendible media products from one of the first and second vending apparatuses to the other for decreasing the disparity.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inventory data is received at a central controller linked to each vending controller through a network.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the inventory data is received in response to a request for the inventory data sent from the central controller to each of the respective vending controllers.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the central controller sends the request for the inventory data in response to a digital query sent from a location remote to the central controller.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising the step of generating an instruction to authorized personnel, wherein the instruction directs the authorized personnel to relocate a specific quantity of vendible media products from among the subset of high-demand vendible media products from the first vending apparatus to the second vending apparatus.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the central controller generates the instruction.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of identifying specific vendible media products from among the subset of high-demand vendible media products for relocation between the first and second vending apparatuses.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the vendible media products that are relocated between the first and second vending apparatuses are the specific vendible media products.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein said relocating step further comprises the step of entering a single command into a user interface of the first vending apparatus whereby entry of the command causes the first vending apparatus to remove the specific vendible media products for relocation.

10. A system for balancing the quantity of high demand vendible media products across a plurality of vending apparatuses comprising:

a vending controller disposed within each of the plurality of vending apparatuses, wherein each vending controller is adapted to monitor an inventory of the vendible media products within its respective vending apparatus; and

a central controller in communication with each of the vending controllers through a network, the central controller adapted to receive inventory data from the vending controllers and use the inventory data to identify specific high demand vendible media products to be relocated from a first vending apparatus to a second vending apparatus;

wherein the inventory data comprises the percentage of time that each vendible media product has been contained within its respective vending apparatus over a fixed period of time.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein each of the specific high demand vendible media products have been absent from the vending apparatus more than they have been present within the vending apparatus over the fixed period of time.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the central controller determines that the inventory of the first vending apparatus has at least two more of the specific high demand vendible media products than does the inventory of the second vending apparatus.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein each vending controller is adapted to signal to the central controller when the inventory of the specific high demand vendible media products identified by the central controller falls below a predetermined value.

14. The system of claim 10 further comprising an authorized personnel communication device for receiving instruction data from the central controller identifying the specific high demand vendible media products to be relocated from the first vending apparatus to the second vending apparatus.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the instruction data comprises an authorization code.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein entry of the authorization code into a user interface on the first vending apparatus will cause ejection of each of the specific high demand vendible media products to be relocated.

17. An inventory management system comprising:

a first vending apparatus containing an inventory of vendible media products;

a first vending controller disposed within the first vending apparatus for monitoring and recording the inventory of vendible media products contained within the first vending apparatus over a fixed period of time, and for determining a subset of high demand vendible media products that are absent from the first vending apparatus at least a predetermined percentage of the fixed period of time;

a second vending apparatus containing an inventory of vendible media products;

a second vending controller disposed within the second vending apparatus for monitoring and recording the inventory of vendible media products contained within the second vending apparatus over the fixed period of time, and for determining a subset of high demand vendible media products that are absent from the second vending apparatus at least the predetermined percentage of the fixed period of time; and

a central controller in communication with the first and second vending controllers through a network for determining an imbalance between the quantity of high demand vendible media products in the first vending apparatus and the quantity of high demand vendible media products in the second vending apparatus, and for generating an instruction to relocate a specific subset of high demand vendible media products from one of the first and second vending apparatuses to the other.

18. The inventory management system of claim 17 , wherein the first and second vending controllers are adapted to signal the central controller when the quantity of high demand vendible media products in their inventory falls below a predetermined level.

19. The inventory management system of claim 17 , wherein the instruction comprises a pin for entry into a user interface of the first vending apparatus.

20. The inventory management system of claim 19 , wherein the first vending controller is adapted to instruct the first vending apparatus to eject the specific subset of high demand vendible media products upon entry of the pin into the user interface.