Best Buy to launch airport gadget vending machines

Best Buy headquarters
The corporate headquarters of Best Buy, based in Richfield, Minn.
MPR Photo/Annie Baxter

(AP) - Best Buy plans to add a dozen vending kiosks inside terminals at major airports across the country.

The Twin Cities-area-based company's move is part of a new pilot program Best Buy calls "Best Buy Express."

The nation's largest consumer electronics retailer is partnering with a San Francisco-based vending machine company called ZoomSystems for the project that will install the small automated stores at eight airports.

The machines will stock cell phone and computer accessories, along with digital cameras, portable data storage devices, headphones, travel adapters, electronic chargers and other gadgets.

The self-serve kiosks will be installed by Sept. 1 in airports in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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