These days the chances are very good

The modern point-of-sale (POS) system is a tightly integrated computer that almost certainly knows all about your buying history, how often you shop online and what you're likely to buy next week.

It is also able to communicate along the entire length of the store's supply chain right back to the factory if necessary.

Not bad for a device that has its origins in the late 1800s and was used primarily for producing a simple receipt - one copy for the merchant and one for the costumer.

I think our customers are very aware of privacy and information but are working side by side with consumers”

"The first POS devices were wooden boxes, made by carpenters out of rosewood," he says.

"They were very mechanical, beautiful pieces of technology - some made with brass, some made with nickel."

NCR is the company that pioneered the early POS systems and is still at the forefront of their development.

That development has become faster since the 1990s.

A transaction was once seen as something that started and ended in the store. Shops knew very little if anything about the customer. In-store coupons and offers were "broadcast" for the benefit of everyone and anyone.

Now, it's all about narrowcasting. These days the chances are very good that the shop knows a lot about you long before you have entered its premises. Loyalty cards for instance hold a treasure trove of information about their owners.

Computers can work out if you are sick and how often, the number of people you live with, if you have pets and can even make an educated guess as to your pregnancy status.

"A consumer can choose to opt out or opt in, so a consumer may say, 'I agree to give up some privacy to get an offer tailored to me based on my presence and preference - but don't blast me.' So I think our customers are very aware of privacy and information but are working side-by-side with consumers."

Retailers are pushing harder to gather and use "big data" to refine their operations. This is especially important when it comes to the supply chain, because in an ideal world as soon as a product is taken off the shelves and paid for, a new one is instantly manufactured or shipped to replace it.

So whereas a few decades ago POS manufacturers would only be interested in designing a machine that suited the needs of the retailer, now they have to take into account the supply warehouse and the point of manufacture.

If a retailer is big enough and powerful enough, it can often dictate that new technology be used along the supply chain to work seamlessly with its own cutting-edge POS system.