A vending machine for iPods?

Old-school vending machines, bulky bastions of high-calorie snacks and sodas, meet your new-school challenger: chic upscale gadgets stocked with consumer electronics and pricey cosmetics. As more of these machines pop up in high-traffic areas such as airports, the old quarter-chuggers may someday find themselves out-vended. The new vending machines sell iPods, cellphones, USB drives, headphones, DVDs, and a host of other gadgets. (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR)
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Retailers try on dressed-up fitting rooms


Strewn with hangers, clothes and pins, fitting rooms — when you can find them — have long been one of retail's afterthoughts. Determined to make the most of every inch of selling space, retailers lavishly displayed fashions on the sales floor and left veritable closets for the trying on.
When Macy's asked customers what they most wanted to see improved in their stores, dressing rooms, wider aisles and more directional signs were most often mentioned. So when parent company Federated (FD) began redesigning its now-800-store Macy's chain last year, it invested more money in the dressing-room area than anywhere else. (USA TODAY)

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