Did you know Dunkin’ Donuts sold packaged coffee in grocery stores? It’s not new, it started August 2007, but it’s easy to miss with all the varieties on a typical shelf. The grocery carts at Park City Market will make sure you know because they’ll tell you.

That’s right, if you haven’t been by recently, Park City Market is experimenting with new technology that allows a shopping cart to talk to a shopper.

A little green scanner similar to those used by clothing-retail cashiers is temporarily attached to the carts. As the shopper turns into a new aisle, they unknowingly walk underneath a sensor that triggers a five to 15 second television commercial that plays on the scanner’s display screen.

A humorous Hungry Man frozen dinner ad, an inspiring Gatorade montage, the weight-loss benefits of Jell-O, or a message about Dunkin’ Donuts coffee are aired to catch your attention. Look up and you will see that product on a nearby shelf.

Of course, in this day and age any invasion of privacy or personal space usually comes with a trade-off. The unit on the cart is also a store navigation system and might become a personal check-out stand as well.

“Can’t find the couscous?” asks store owner Mike Holm. “Type ‘cou’ into the unit and it will tell you ‘couscous’ is on aisle 8, top shelf.”

That will be a huge help in ski season, he said, when the store is full of people from out of town who are inside for the first time.

Once the item is found, if you can’t tell if the price listed is for the brand you want or the brand next to it, use the unit to scan the barcode.

Some day soon, shoppers will be able to scan all their items as they shop, hand the unit to a cashier to verify it, pay and leave. It could eliminate check-out waiting lines.

If a shopper is coupon conscious, the unit can tell you an item is on sale as you walk past it.

Shoppers Barbara Stringfellow and Sandra Vogt said they didn’t care for the new technology last Wednesday because they don’t like suggestive sales when they’re buying food. When invited to use it both declined.

“I said I’d rather not. When I come to the store I come for a specific number of things,” Stringfellow said. “Forget that it’s a nuisance.”

Vogt said she didn’t need the distraction. “It would make me forget what I came in for,” she said.

Greg Smith said he liked the idea.

“I didn’t have a problem with it. It’s innovative marketing, not invasive not intrusive,” he said.

Still, he didn’t like the flashy ads or coupon alerts.

Holm said he’s aware some are finding the ads annoying. He’s considering turning down the volume on them, but said the ads are how the technology is funded.

Still, he reminds shoppers that he hasn’t made a final decision yet. The store is trying them out.

Paul G. Begum is the inventor of the units. His company, Klever Marketing Inc. based in Salt Lake City, created The Giving Cart. The talking units are called a “Giving Cart” because it awards prizes for using them. People in the store have a chance of winning cash every hour.

Of 150 users who completed a survey on the units, 83 percent said they were very impressed with it, Begum said.

In addition to showing all the specials in the store, it can display recipes, a store directory, even weather and Associated Press news reports.

It’s also great for the stores, he said. During a four-month test at a Smith’s Food King in Salt Lake City, the unit helped increase incremental movement of product nearly 47 percent.

Also, about 50 sensors in the ceiling can triangulate with the cart to know where a shopper in the store is within 12 to 24 inches, Begum said.

“The readers in the ceiling help us see what you’re buying,” he explained.

The store will learn why you went up an aisle and why stopped where you did.

When connected with a store’s rewards program, like a valued-shopper card, it can tell the store that specific data about individuals.

“It knows where you go, it knows what you bought last time so it can try to up-sell you,” he said. “We’ll sell the data to manufacturers.”

It knows if you’re reaching more often for products at eye level, and how often you’ll reach up or bend down for something.

The grocery industry is interested in data at the “point of sale,” he said. But consumers make their purchase when they put something in the cart. His scanners can give the industry data about the “point of selection.” That’s revolutionary, he said.

Is all this tracking of shoppers going too far? He says no.

“I’m not worried about overdoing it. This is the simplest version in America, and the best,” he said.

Mike Holm said he sees no value to tracking his customers and does not, and will not, use that feature. He he’s never had a frequent-shoppers card.

“I don’t care if Mrs. Jones is buying beer or soda,” he said.

If the soda gets purchased, he knows because it’s missing from the shelf. He doesn’t care who bought it or why. His goal is to create a positive shopping environment and good prices for his clients, he said.

If he decides to keep the machines, he said the ads will improve his slim profit margins and help keep prices reasonable.

After all, every new marketing technique from road-side billboards to talking carts has to be gotten used to.

“It’s in its infancy stages, we’re still playing with it,” he said. “The jury is still out.”