One of Apple’s standout innovations in retail, from my perspective, is the ability to checkout with any Apple store employee using their mobile device. Sometime around March of last year I asked on Quora why Apple was the only major retailer, even years after introducing this method, to employ it.

Yesterday I noticed a photo in the paper demonstrating a mobile checkout device (looks like an iPhone or iPod doesn’t it?) being used at Nordstrom. I assume that Nordstrom won’t be the only retailer to pick up the mobile checkout system going forward.

Innovations come in all shapes and sizes, and in all industries. And sometimes it takes years for new ideas to take root, but that doesn’t make them any less powerful as agents of change.