SUPERMARKET manager Stuart Adlington has seen the future -- and it's free from queues!

In fact he liked it so much that he has brought it back from the USA with him, in the form of a portable computer.

He claims the gadget will make queuing in supermarkets a thing of the past.

Stuart, general store manager at Asda in Fulwood, has returned from spending a week getting to grips with one of parent company Walmart's stores in Brookhaven, Mississippi, to find out how American's run their superstores.

Stuart, whose store was paired up with Brookhaven's Walmart when the two companies joined forces last year, said the English would soon enjoy the American way of queuing -- and they'll like it much more! He said: "Whenever there are three of four people queuing at a till, a member of staff comes uses a hand-held computer to scan all the items the customer is buying while they are queuing to pay.

"Then the shopper is given a swipe card which is zapped through the till so they can pay. It saves so much time and will be great here at times like Christmas.

"It saves the cashier having to scan the items, so they can be through the check-out in no time at all."

The innovative new computer will be introduced at Asda in Fulwood in June, much to Stuart's delight.

He said: "The computer makes things a lot easier because it does everything, including pricing, so more colleagues can be on the shop floor, helping customers.

"But the store I visited was four times the size of our Fulwood store, and under 30 per cent of it was dedicated to food, unlike us, where it is more like 70 per cent."

Staff from Brookhaven will visit Preston later this year to discover the English way of doing things, and are said to be particularly interested in the store's fresh food delicatessan and rotisseries -- something Americans are yet to enjoy.