Digital advertising is coming to shopping carts. The Associated Press reports Microsoft spent four years working with Plano, TX-based MediaCart Holdings Inc. on a grocery cart-mounted console that helps shoppers find products in the store, then scan and pay for their items without waiting in the checkout line. The companies plan to test MediaCart in ShopRite supermarkets on the East Coast later this year.

Customers with a ShopRite loyalty card will be able to log into a website at home and type in grocery lists. By swiping their card on the MediaCart console at the grocery store, the list will appear. As shoppers scan their items and place them in their cart, the console gives a running price tally and checks items off the shopping list.

The system also uses radio-frequency ID to sense where the shopper's cart is in the store. The RFID data can help ShopRite and food makers understand shopping patterns, and the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points of the store, the article says.