(FORTUNE Magazine) – In the new age of supermarket shopping Mr. Whipple may be replaced by a robot. In a high-tech supermarket, a computer changes the price tags, video display terminals offer recipes and recommend wines, other machines spit out coupons, and still others point out which aisle has the Charmin. Electronics will even help you check out your own groceries. Just as automatic teller machines conquered banks, computers are souping up supermarkets. Stores hope the new machines will save labor costs and lure more customers. Thomas Rauh, national director of retail consulting for the accounting firm Touche Ross, says, ''Since shoppers find food markets similar, retailers want to deliver value-added programs that consumers will view as something special.''

Telepanel Inc., a Canadian company based in Toronto, makes electronic shelf labels to replace the plastic price tags that are often mislabeled and hard to read. Each label contains a microprocessor, a battery, and a liquid crystal display that can be changed by commands from a computer. The price tag: $150,000 to $200,000 per store. Kroger, the Cincinnati-based supermarket chain, began testing the system in a suburban Dallas store in March. Kroger has also been experimenting with a self-service scanning system made by CheckRobot, a Deerfield Beach, Florida, company. Shoppers check out by passing their groceries over an electric beam that reads the price codes. Then they put the products through a security tunnel where prices are double-checked before being bagged by an attendant. Customers pay a central teller. The system costs between $35,000 and $40,000 per checkout lane. Inter-ad sells a $6,500 electronic directory that shows customers a map of the store that locates up to 1,500 products. The Rochester, New York, company also promotes a $12,000 Cuisine Machine that gives video cooking demonstrations and prints out free recipes. Catalina Marketing, a Los Angeles company, is betting that shoppers will like using the coupons that pop out of its electronic coupon machine. The $10,000 system deals out coupons at the checkout counter whenever certain products are scanned. For instance, if a customer buys baby food, the scanner may activate the machine to release a coupon for disposable diapers.