No, you're not watching the Sci Fi channel. Park the car and walk into the Smith's Food and & Drug Center at 876 E. 800 South in Salt Lake City and you can do just that.

Just inside the entrance rests a large vending machine filled not with candy, soda pop or stale sandwiches, but iPod music and video players, cell phones, digital and video cameras and accessories such as chargers, speakers, headphones and protective covers for your electronic toys.

The machine, made by San Francisco-based ZoomSystems, was installed about three weeks ago. Manager Brian Easter says that so far, it has been more of a curiosity to shoppers than a big money maker.

"It started out a little slow, but lately we have had some buyers," he said Friday. "People are getting used to it, and it is neat. You buy something and an arm comes out, gets it and delivers it to the customer."

In its first two weeks, sales topped $2,000. But if that sounds like a lot of green, consider this: the iPod music players - sans music - run from $149 to $249, depending on memory-storage models ranging from 2 to 30 gigabytes. iPod video players will cost you $249 (20GB) to $349 (80GB).

A 6-megapixel digital camera? That will be $149, or you can upgrade to a mini-hand-held video camera for $179.

Obviously, this is a step up from the lunchroom machine hawking that 75-cent fruit pie or $1.50 burrito. ZoomSystems does not expect you to patiently feed dollar bills into the machine's money slot - all major credit and debit cards are accepted.

John Johnston strolled in Friday morning and looked over the new vending marvel, his eyes racing across the banks of digital goodies.

"That's one expensive vending machine," he said. "But I guess if you're getting an iPod, it doesn't matter much where you pick one up. This might be quicker and easier."

Smith's spokeswoman Marsha Gilford said Easter's store is one of three locations in Utah where the grocery chain has installed the ZoomSystems vending units.

"We're testing them, but it's too early to say if they are successful in terms of [sales] results," she said.

Along with airports, hotels, malls and other high-traffic retail outlets nationwide, Macy's department stores also are using the "robotic shops" - but not yet in Utah, said spokeswoman Kimberly Reason.

"We are still in the process of testing 128 [units] in 120 stores nationwide," she said, adding that Utah might see the machines show up in the company's stores here sometime in 2008.

"The concept is still young," Reason added. "[But] customers seem to love the convenience and easy use of robotic shops."

A better-known entry in the vending machine arena might be the Redbox video-rental kiosks that came to Utah two years ago.

They are found in Smith's stores and most McDonald's restaurants, and Albertson's grocery stores signed on earlier this month.

Redbox is a joint venture of McDonald's and Coinstar, the company with coin-counting kiosks in grocery stores.

Each of the kiosks offers a selection of about 500 DVDs, with the titles refreshed weekly. Redbox also used a touchscreen interface and accepts credit or debit cards. The charge is $1 a night, plus tax, and the movies can be returned to any Redbox machine.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Redbox has more that 2,200 locations nationwide, including about 50 in Utah. The company could not provide a sales breakdown specifically for Utah but says it recently topped 30 million rentals to more than 4 million customers nationwide.