1.   Data gathered from supermarket scanners showed big declines in sales of facial cosmetics and nail polish but a sharp increase in spending on candles.

2.   From supermarket scanners to sophisticated inventory management systems to CNBC, businesses and consumers can draw on vast quantities of information about what is happening as it is happening.

3.   His optimism is supported by figures from Infoscan, a service of Information Resources Inc., which monitors sales through supermarket electronic scanners.

4.   It took more than a decade to find practical uses for optical lasers, now ubiquitous in CD players, supermarket scanners and operating rooms.

5.   Sales figures from supermarket checkout scanners are fed daily to manufacturers, allowing factories to fine-tune their output to match demand.

6.   The typical supermarket scanner sends out a pattern of laser light reflected off several mirrors by a spinning mirror.

7.   Gore countered that the situation is akin to a supermarket checkout scanner failing to read a product bar code.

8.   Gore countered that the situation is akin to a supermarket checkout scanner failing to read a product barcode.