I recently tried out the sort of background technology they could have used on Century City. The Albertson's in my neighborhood has introduced "Shop 'n' Scan," a handheld scanner you take around the store with you, scanning the prices of your groceries as you pick them up. Based on my trial run, the scanner works great--it's actually fun and it shortens the checkout process enormously. (Here's a dopey set of photos from a local radio station.) Some retailing experts are afraid eliminating personal contact with the checkers will reduce customer loyalty. Unless the general public is radically different from me, I doubt that actual customers look forward to those encounters, though, of course, a pleasant checker is better than a grumpy one. Most of us just want to get our stuff and leave. I think these scanners will be everywhere in a few years.
 The one flaw in the system is that today's grocery carts don't accommodate bags, and Shop 'n' Scan assumes you'll bag as you go. We need a redesigned version of IDEO's famous shopping cart, one that takes cheap, disposable bags instead of fancy plastic boxes.
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