High-Tech Shopping Carts

Welcome to "Store Wars."

Armed with high-tech weaponry, one supermarket chain is battling to keep shoppers like Stephanie O'Brien and her mom Valeria from deserting, reports CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers.

"Has it made you a more determined Stop and Shop customer?" Bowers asked.

"Yes, actually, because this is the only supermarket that has it around the area," replied Stephanie O'Brien.

It is the "Shopping Buddy." A touch-screen, cart-mounted computer that Stop and Shop is trying out in the Boston area.

"If they find that it's easier and faster to get it done at Stop and Shop because they've got all the tools at their fingertips, then they're probably gonna buy more stuff," said Stop and Shop Marketing Director Peg Merzbacher.

Shopping Buddy is half butler and half big Big Brother. It knows exactly where in the store you are ...

"It's reminding me that since I'm in the deli area now, I can order my deli while I'm shopping," said Merzbacher.

"So you don't have to stop and get a number and wait in line?" asked Bowers.

"You don't."

... what you might be looking for....

"Now it's gonna show me all the items I've bought in this aisle," Merzbacher said.

... and even helps in the kitchen.

"If you don't know what to fix for supper, you can get a recipe right on here?' Bowers asked.

"Exactly. You can e-mail the recipe home."

Everything's changed in the grocery game since Wal-Mart muscled in and quickly became the biggest in the business. Supermarkets quickly learned that, since it's almost impossible to compete on price, they better have something else to sell. And surveys have shown almost half of us are willing to pay more for a more pleasant trip down the aisles.

Stores around the country are getting the point that service sells - whether it's redesigned stores geared to convenience or high-end "food boutiques" aimed at the well-heeled connoisseur.

So this sounds like an industry in flux.

"I think what it really comes down to is which supermarkets are thinking about how they can best serve their customers and the ones who do the best will be the ones that survive," said Mitch Corwin, Morningstar Supermarket analyst.

Back at the store, Stephanie and Valeria have made their rounds, and thanks to their high-tech cart, they just how much they've spent even before they check themselves out.

The chain plans to equip 20 more stores by year's end, betting millions that shoppers will keep coming back to be with their buddy.