You drive up to the nearest Sunoco, 7-11 or Texaco and decide to enter the c-store since you need a gallon of milk, and maybe a few Milky Way bars... But this time, there's no cashier. In fact there are no people there at all. You're being served by a machine that not only retrieves the candy bar, beverage, cigarettes or antacid you need, it also processes your transaction.

Sounds like science fiction? Not really, it's already here. It's a robotic c-store and there are already 15 to 20 of them in the U.S. They're popping up in New York, Texas, California... They're on college campuses like SUNY-Binghamton and Cal-State Fullerton and they're also beginning to operate 24/7 at the same places that pump your gas.

In Columbus, Ohio, for instance, when you stop at the Kroger on Olentangy River Road, you'll get robotic service and convenience, but if you want to complain about the price of gasoline, it might be a very one-sided conversation. Nonetheless, the automated convenience store is right by the gas pumps and it can accommodate more than 2,000 items of inventory.

Shop24 stores can serve up to 175 different products ranging from 1 ounce to 7.5 pounds. It can dispense full meals and it accepts different methods of payment including cash, credit card, debit card. Shop24 is a European company and they are common there because retail space is so limited.

Some call them vending machines on steroids, others just call it progress. In a way, it's almost as if this 21st century direction of retailing harkens back to the 20th century innovation that was the Automat, by Horn and Hardart... Remember those?

They were immensely popular in New York and Philadelphia and were the first to offer Americans "fast food." They served sandwiches, coffee, pies, and a broad range of staples like baked beans, macaroni and cheese, creamed spinach or Salisbury steak. During the Depression their business soared because it was simply good affordable food. Customers would put nickels in a slot and turn the handle to open the compartment for the food dish they wanted ...and on the other side of the food dispensing framework were actual human beings busily replacing the tuna sandwiches and apple pie by the slice.

Regrettably, they were replaced in the mid-70s by the McDonalds and Burger Kings... Ask your Philly or NY friends if they remember the Automat! (The NY landmark was on the corner of 42nd and 3rd Ave.)