Cruising the aisles of your local mall or grocery store will start to feel a lot like shopping on the Internet, if these products, previewed at the National Retail Federation’s annual trade show in New York, are any indication. Both of these gizmos take the Internet’s strengths—easy, instant information and price flexibility—and put them onto the store floor.
How ecological is that potato? Bizerba, a German company that makes food scales, offers a new twist to weighing your apples. A touch screen shows not only how much the item weighs but also what its carbon footprint is. (Growing and transporting a potato, for example, produces 598 grams of carbon dioxide.) The screen also shows the implications of different methods of preparation: in the case of the potato, boiling consumes less energy than baking. The scales are already in use in Europe, and the company hopes to get them into U.S. grocery stores as well.
Let’s make a deal. A software program called Taggle will enable you to use your iPhone or iPod Touch to bid on items you see on store shelves. First, find items with orange Taggle tags (that means the store manager is willing to dicker). Type in the tag number, make an offer, and get an immediate response on whether your offer is accepted. The service saves you from having to hunt down a store manager and haggle in-person, something many people are uncomfortable doing. The product is not yet in use in any U.S. stores, but the company is working on getting retailers to sign up.
