Automated Shopping

Model Joan Lockwood selects items from the glass case at a completely automated section of a supermarket at the 30th Annual IGA Food Store Convention at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, July 19, 1956. She puts a large roundkey in a matching slot while she presses buttons to make her selection. The selected items are recorded on a tape inside the key. The amount due on the purchases is tabulated at the same time. This is jut one of the systems to be used in supermarkets to be opened in fall 1956 in key U.S. cities. The three types of automation will be 1) push button selection in the store, 2) checking of items on special cards at home or in the store, for electronic delivery by conveyor belt to the counter 3) after hours and Sunday automatic shopping of limited last minute supplies at coin machine units outside stores.