Grab your hot coffee, a newspaper and head for the surf.

Calgarians will soon be getting wired in more ways than one when they pop into their local convenience stores for their morning high-test coffee.

Starting in the next couple of weeks, Mac’s convenience stores will begin testing a new kind of merchandise designed to keep their customers lingering just a little bit longer — a pay-per-use Internet kiosk. It’s part of an effort by Mac’s, owned by Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, to remake their convenience stores into speciality cafe-style environments.

“We want people to stick around, and use it as a social gathering spot, a mini-coffee house. We think the kiosks are another service we can offer the customer,” says Dave Cowley, senior category manager in Calgary for the chain’s western division.

Mac’s has teamed up with Burnaby, B.C.-based Info Touch Technologies, which says they will begin test-driving five of their sleek PowerNet e-commerce kiosks in Calgary next month at the following locations:

* 2007 4th St. S.W.;
* 3 Coral Springs Blvd. N.E.;
* 8 Mackenzie Towne Ave. S.E., (opening in December);
* 11 Hidden Creek Dr. N.W., (opening in January);
* 300, 10 Chaparral Dr. S.E.

Ten other units will be piloted, five in Edmonton and five in B.C. “Cyber cafes are evolving now at the retail level like there’s no tomorrow,” says Info Touch Technologies spokesman Cameron Clark.

“Probably within the next eight to 10 months, you’re going to see the retail market saturated with cafes.”

Clark says Mac’s is the first convenience store of its kind in Canada to carry the dial-up Internet kiosks, which can be customized to the store’s decor. The units are already operational at a chain of 1,500 convenience stores in the U.S.

The company announced earlier this month that’s it’s also rolling out 178 e-commerce kiosks to Future Shop stores across Canada. It has also deployed about 300 other units throughout the Chapters bookstore chain across the country.

Notes Cameron: “It’s going to make the convenience stores absolutely leading edge. Right now, convenience stores aren’t the laggard in the industry, but they’re behind general retailers and mass merchandisers. So they’re starting to look at this technology as being a value extension for their own in-store service.”

Cowley says Mac’s customers will be able to use credit cards, coins or special pre-paid cards to access the Internet, at an estimated cost of $12 an hour. The units will be equipped with video cameras and handsets so customers can send video-e-mails.

Info Touch and Mac’s will share vending and ad revenue. “To be honest, we’re not exactly sure what type of customer they’re going to attract, whether its kids, teens, adults. It’s all part of the test to see who is going to be using the machines,” says Cowley.

He adds that the machines will be equipped with screening technology to block out objectionable Web sites that could be unsuitable for children.

The pilot program will run into the New Year before 1,500 units are rolled out across Canada, says Clark.