Well, a saw a sure sign today that iPods have indeed, become a cultural phenomenon.

Yes, I'd heard there were iPod vending machines... but I didn't expect to see one... in my local grocery store.

That's right, the Vons on Lyons avenue, in little old Newhall, California, has one of these:

This isn't it, but it's the same basic machine. Except the one at Vons has nothing but iPods and iPod accessories.

Here's the really weird thing about all of this... I actually bought something from it. I was planning to drive out to Best Buy tomorrow to pick up a power adapter for work, but then I saw this thing, and it had the adapter right there, same price that I would've paid at Best Buy or an Apple Store.

So I bought it. Saved me a trip out to Best Buy, and I didn't have to deal with salespeople or checkout lines.

So my question is this... what happens if you're buying an iPod, and it gets stuck in the machine like a candy bar? If the next guy comes along to buy an iPod, does he get two for the price of one? If you shake the machine hard enough, will it fall out?

(Well, no... a robot arm picks the items off the shelves, but it's still fun to think about.)

Pretty weird though. But hey... kudos to Apple for finding yet another way to increase its retail presence.

I'm just trying to figure out how they're going to fit a Genius Bar in one of those things.