Last weekend, my wife Barbara and our friend Jill hit North Carolina's outer banks, hoping to avoid Hurricane Dennis and have a couple nice days at the beach. They did.

This weekend, Barbara hit the outer banks again, this time hoping to catch Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Dennis as it finally crashed into the shore. She's a reporter, you see. Once again,. she succeeded.

This left me with some time by myself. Sunday night, that meant quality videos (a couple of Ripping Yarns tapes, featuring Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python) and quality food (frozen White Castle cheeseburgers and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Coffee Toffee Crunch). In case you were wondering, my fridge already had a good stock of beer, so no extra need there.

As I cruised to the checkout line at the grocery store, frozen faux-burgers and pricey ice cream in hand, I found something new waiting at the 15-items-or-less aisle.

Automatic checkouts.

Or, as the fine folks at Kroger call them, "U-Scans."

Now, lest you think this is a great way to steal food, there is a single clerk sitting in a booth above the four U-Scan units, watching like a hawk. Her seat reminded me of the Imperious Leader's throne on Battlestar Galactica, though I think she was a little better disposed toward humans. A little. She was mostly yelling out instructions to the many customers who couldn't quite make sense of it all, but I noticed that she also made sure I scanned all two of my items.

Here in Durham (as in most of the country), it is possible to pay for food at the grocery store with cash, check, credit card, ATM card and a few other things. I like the ATM method myself, because people always make me produce copious identification when I write a check (Barbara never gets hit with anything more than a drivers license request). One swipe, type in four numbers and it's all over. Just write the total in the checkbook and that's it.

Very cool. I'm a big fan of this sort of technology.

So when I saw the U-Scans, I knew I was gonna be happy. The instructions couldn't have been easier. Press screen to start. Scan items. Pay. Get receipt. Leave.

By the way, you can pay with cash, credit card or ATM. I hate feeding cash into those readers, so even though my bill was minimal, I just ATMed it. My bank doesn't charge for POS (point of sale) transactions, so it isn't any extra money out of the ol' account. I was in and out of the store in five minutes, and that includes the four minutes I spent choosing a flavor of ice cream.

U-Scan is absolutely great.

In general, I like these do-it-yourself shopping options. I've read of video tape rental vending machines (a truly great idea) and also CD vending machines (a not-so-great idea). Over in Germany and other parts of Europe they have beer vending machines (a really, really great idea). You know where I'm going on vacation next.

I've always used ATMs, even for deposits. I use the stamp vending machine at the post office if I have the right amount of cash. It's not that I don't like the folks at the windows. I'm sure grocery cashiers are fine people. But I don't need to interact with them to complete my food purchasing experience. I need to pay and get out to my car. That's about it.

So on this rainy night, as I'm pigging out on nasty yet sublime food and watching some terribly funny videos, I'm still awash in a glow of happiness from my encounter with the U-Scan.

This almost makes up for those red "drink your Coke now" cups they put on their carts.

Well, maybe not, but U-Scan is still pretty damned cool.

Jon Worley spent most of the Labor Day weekend painting in his new house.