Sony hopes to make the purchase of many of its electronics products as easy as buying a piece of chocolate writes NYTIMES

The media giant is planning to have vending machines ... sorry robotic stores .. all over the world

Gower Smith of Zoom Systems, which is providing the technology for Sony, says that these are robotic stores and not vending machines

The first locations - in malls in Atlanta; Boulder, Colo.; and Santa Rosa, Calif. - are part of a bigger test by Sony to increase sales by melding the simplicity of online buying with the immediate gratification of a store purchase.