They're everywhere!

The funny thing about interactive kiosks is, once you start looking for them, they're everywhere. There's are three kiosks in my local Safeway—an ATM machine, a kiosk to apply for jobs at Safeway, and one in the pharmacy area that measures your blood pressure. At our nearby Irish pub, they have a gambling kiosk at the bar and a digital jukebox from which you can download music from the internet AND buy MP3 players and other gadgets. Clearly, they're hoping to tap into the market of drunks with credit cards who will probably receive their purchases in the mail and not remember buying them.

I was shopping at Macy's recently and they have a little kiosk where you can scan the price tag on your merchandise to find out what the actual price is (discounts are not always obvious, I guess) and there was a large, not-yet-functioning vending machine for iPod-related goodies. I'll have to back and check this out—it's interesting that Apple has moved into retail in such a big way, first with their terrifically popular Apple stores, and now with these kiosks.