Today I went to the brand new Fry's Electronics store to pick up a corded headset telephone I had been looking for. What an amazing toy store for us wanabe Geeks! Huge, with lots of selection, and nice with knowledgeable people to help you.
But the really interesting part began after the salesperson helped me make a selection of the right phone. We went to a register in that department so that he could provide me a "quote," really a way of tracking what customers have picked up and try not to have merchandise "disappear."
The store computer system crashed. So as we stood there waiting for it to come back, we had a 15-minute conversation about the fact that he didn't have a clue about what he wanted to pursue as a career long term. My coaching self stepped in and he got a good (and free) coaching session on the spot.
Finally we gave up on the computer system, and after looking around some, I headed to check out. The line to check out was L-O-N-G. And it wasn't moving very fast, either. Turns out that the computer crash was causing the hoard of check-out people to have to process transactions manually. So that was really slow compared to scan and run the credit card. The result was another 15-minute conversation with a man I was standing in line with -- really a pleasant thing. I also got to talk to the person who had been assigned to control the queue, and then several minutes with the person checking me out.
It took a lot of time, but actually I really enjoyed the opportunity to have meaningful contact with others while I was shopping. While the convenience of information systems doing the scanning and funds transaction and the whole deal happening almost instantaneously is nice, I was reminded of how much I miss the leisurely interaction that naturally occurs before we had all the convenience of automation.
There is a price that we pay for "progress." That price is exacted from meaningful person-to-person interaction.
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