Shoppers check selves out // New high-tech registers use customers as grocery clerks

MORROW, Ga. Shoppers wheel their carts up slowly and eye the newcheck-out lane in the Kroger Food Store with a good deal ofsuspicion.

There is nobody to ring up the groceries. Nobody to say, "Pricecheck register six." Nobody to say, "Have a nice day."

It is the shopper and a video screen. One-on-one. This isself-service check-out.

Welcome to high-tech grocery shopping.

It's a little like going to the video arcade for a can of peas.

"One older lady came in and had a ball with it," said Pete Wenz,an engineer with CheckRobot, the Florida company that designed thedo-it-yourself check-out system.

The new system, called Expressit, made …