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I've never met a shop assistant quite like Roger before.
He has a head like a goldfish bowl, eyes like ping pong balls and as for his body - well, that looks suspiciously like a rubbish bin.
Roger is the resident robot at Germany's new Future Store, in Toenisvorst, near Dusseldorf in western Germany.
Sporting a dashing blue bow-tie and flashing orange hair, he trundles up and down the aisles telling customers about the innovations that make this one of the world's most hi-tech hypermarkets.
So what - apart from Roger - makes the store of the future different from the shops of the present?
Well, for a start, here you can use your mobile phone to help you with your shopping.
In the dairy section I meet Dagmar and her family.
Rather bizarrely, they are pointing their mobile phone at a tub of butter.
With free software from the supermarket, the telephone has been transformed into a mobile shopping assistant.
Using the camera on the phone, Dagmar can scan the barcodes of her own shopping.
That reduces shopping time and stress.
"Shopping's become much quicker," Dagmar explains. "Now I don't have to queue up at a regular check-out."
Instead, when she is ready to pay, Dagmar presses a button on her mobile.
Seconds later, a single barcode for all her items pops up on the display. ...
He has a head like a goldfish bowl, eyes like ping pong balls and as for his body - well, that looks suspiciously like a rubbish bin.
Roger is the resident robot at Germany's new Future Store, in Toenisvorst, near Dusseldorf in western Germany.
Sporting a dashing blue bow-tie and flashing orange hair, he trundles up and down the aisles telling customers about the innovations that make this one of the world's most hi-tech hypermarkets.
So what - apart from Roger - makes the store of the future different from the shops of the present?
Well, for a start, here you can use your mobile phone to help you with your shopping.
In the dairy section I meet Dagmar and her family.
Rather bizarrely, they are pointing their mobile phone at a tub of butter.
With free software from the supermarket, the telephone has been transformed into a mobile shopping assistant.
Using the camera on the phone, Dagmar can scan the barcodes of her own shopping.
That reduces shopping time and stress.
"Shopping's become much quicker," Dagmar explains. "Now I don't have to queue up at a regular check-out."
Instead, when she is ready to pay, Dagmar presses a button on her mobile.
Seconds later, a single barcode for all her items pops up on the display. ...
There's a bit more to the article, it's long for a bbc piece. Poor Europe, can't pick on Africa anymore and eastern Europe is becoming too modern. If only you still had a Mexico somewhere.
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