Video ads at grocery carts by Microsoft

Customers with a loyalty card will be able to log into a Web site at home and type in their grocery lists.

 The software maker spent four years working with Plano, Texas-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.

Starting in the second half of 2008, the companies plan to test MediaCart in Wakefern Food Corp.'s ShopRite supermarkets on the East Coast. The system also uses radio-frequency identification 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.

Neither Microsoft nor any advertisers will have access to the personal information consumers provide when they join the supermarket's loyalty card program.