Keedoozle

Keedoozle was the first fully automated grocery store in the United States, a vending machine concept developed by grocer Clarence Saunders in 1937.

[3] Saunders' Keedoozle was a prototype for a store for automatic dispensing of groceries and registering the total cost at the pick up counter.

[8] Electric circuits caused perforations to be cut in a ticker tape attached to the face of the customer's key.

That set off electrical and electronic circuits which started the goods sliding down conveyor belts and did the cost tallying in the process.

Stock personnel had put their selected items onto conveyor belts physically that in turn moved to the cashier for check out.

One quote from journal Automation in Marketing said that it was just too much for the average mind to grasp; too far in advance of the public thinking.

This first store closed after a few months because the mechanical technology was not capable of handling the high traffic loads.