Whether it's a clothing store, a grocery store or a coffee shop, you're likely to find a big counter with a cash register on it, and a person operating that cash register on the other side. You go to them; they don't come to you. Why?

An American saloon owner named James Ritty invented the cash register in 1879. Since then, all cash registers have shared the characteristics of bigness, heaviness and bulkiness -- and have required the old walk-up-to-the-counter behavior in order to buy things.

One notable exception is your local Apple Store. There are no cash registers. If you want to buy something, you flag down some kid wearing a brightly colored T-shirt and hand over your credit card. The kid scans the item's bar code with a specially outfitted or , swipes your credit card and emails you the receipt. The transaction can happen anywhere in the store.

, apparently, thinks the whole process for buying things in retail stores is dumb. The big counter you have to walk up to? The giant machine for registering the transaction? The paper receipt? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

And it has a point. Cash registers are obsolete and unnecessary.