Nordstrom is removing long lines from its shopping experience by arming its employees with modified iPod Touches. The devices come equipped with merchandise scanners and credit card sliders to allow staff to check out customers from anywhere in the store, according to a story on Forbes.

Nordstrom has already deployed more than 6,000 of the mobile devices throughout its 117 full-line stores as part of a larger plan for Nordstrom to help "provide a more technology enabled store experience," according to the story.

Besides making shopping easier for customers, the mobile devices may have also contributed to an increase in Nordstrom sales, because while it reduces customer wait time, it also reduces the amount of time customers usually spend pondering purchases, according to the story. It pointed out that Nordstrom's 2012 March Sales Report showed that "Preliminary quarter-to-date total retail sales of $1.73 billion increased 15.3 percent compared with total retail sales of $1.50 billion for the same period in fiscal 2011." Additionally, according to the 2011 Nordstrom Annual Report, "both the average selling price and the number of items sold increased in 2011 compared with 2010."

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