For those who have yet to hear, Microsoft will soon be at a Shop Rite near you. Microsoft's new venture with MediaCart Holdings Inc. will allow customers to make shopping lists at their homes and then upload them to a screen on the shopping cart. But that's just the beginning. Not only will the shopping list populate on the screen, but you can pay as you place the items in the cart. After scanning and paying for the items they are "checked off" on the list. And you thought that was enough technology for one trip to the grocery store, right? They also have a location based coupon system that can present coupons for the items in your vicinity. I wonder if this Jetson-esque shopping style will soon be the statues quo. I appreciate the benefits of this system, and would definitely give it a try, but I'm not like most people. I'm an early adapter. I would take the time to go online, make my shopping list at Shoprite.com, enter my user information, and then swipe my card on the cart screen. The exercise of simply describing the process scares people. I am not sure whether there is going to be an enormous backlash against this kind of technology. I wager no. It seems that these companies pushing their "life efficiency" technologies think the world will soon be a Visa credit card commercial. Everyone dances, shops and swipes their credit cards like they're in a Fatboy Slim video. Amidst all the "Big Brother" gadgets that accompany this system, there is one HUGE benefit, no checkout. If people could casually stroll out of a Shoprite without waiting in a line to unload, pay, and package their groceries, they'd do it. This is why Wal-Mart's testing of RFID tags on items makes perfect sense. Until the internet/technology generation becomes the "Grocery store demographic" this technology will fizzle. I know it's coming, I just don't know when it will be accepted.
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