Supermarket Of The Future May Be Here Sooner Than You Think

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If not much has changed at your grocery store since the advent of self-checkout and gas points, brace yourself.

There's new technology aimed at making the supermarket experience easier and faster -- and it's being shown off this week at the National Retail Federation's convention in New York City.

If you've ever had to play 'where's the barcode' or tried to flatten out a crinkled UPC code that just won't scan, Digimarc has the solution: a pattern embedded all over the product packaging that you can't see, but scanners recognize instantly.

In Northeastern PA, the family-owned Gerrity's supermarket chain is offering customers an app called Skip:

"You're able to create a shopping list. You can even scan items at your home -- you just scan the barcode as you throw out the product that you just used and it's added to your shopping list."

Co-owner Joe Fasula says the app maps out your shopping mission, aisle by aisle -- and, as its name suggests, lets you Skip the checkout (after a quick audit by a store clerk):

"You're going to scan it, and put it right in your basket or in a bag. When you're done, you're going to finalize the order on your device. The entire transaction is going to be completed in the cloud either through your credit card that you've registered or your bank account, and you're done."