NEW YORK -- Starting this week, shoppers at more than 100 Stop & Shop supermarkets across New England can do their shopping with the help a portable shopping assistant powered by an interactive shopping technology.

Through a partnership with Stop & Shop and Motorola, Modiv Media has launched a new handheld device that allows customers to scan goods and interface with self-serve checkout kiosks at selected stores, the Journal of New England Technology reports. 

The system, which was beta-tested by a handful of stores, uses a Motorola MC17 mobile computer equipped with Modiv Media software. New England's Stop & Shop customers are the first to use these technologies in a chain store setting, say company officials. But plans are to roll out the devices to other stores in Stop & Shop's 389 stores across New England, New York and New Jersey.

Wesley said they'll see how things go, but are mindful that the in-store handheld model may not be the final iteration. "The eventual vision, and one of the reasons we've worked so closely, is to eventually enable the consumer-owned device," he said.

The device also provides a delivery mechanism for special offers on products while in the store, a process crucial to the promotion of special offers, said Robert Wesley, president and CEO of Modiv Media.

The deal isn't Modiv Media's first with a major retailer. Last fall, the maker of mobile payment and promotion platforms rolled out a mobile coupon redemption program with Subway sandwich shops, covering some 300 stores in the Pacific Northwest, as well as upstate New York.