Real NewsReal People: No time to shop

D.E. Bentley –

One of my favorite episodes of the 1980s “Twilight Zone” series aired in 1985 (written by Joe Crocker, directed by Wes Craven).  Similar to an earlier episode, “A Kind of a Stopwatch,” by the late, great Rod Serling, the  episode was about a harried housewife who finds a sundial medallion in her garden.  She discovers that she can call for quiet and it stops all time – except that of whomever has the medallion.  The episode is set in the 1960s – Dr. Strangelove is on the marquee of a street scene theatre.  At first she has a bit of fun with this contraption, including the relevant scene – which I will get to shortly – until the radio announcement about the nuclear bombs comes on.  She is in the bathtub and does the only thing a rational person might do.  She stops time.  Stepping outside, totally alone, her family frozen in time, she sees the bombs, suspended in mid air.  Well, you get the rest.

There is one scene that shows her going into a grocery store.  She stops time, leisurely shops, tucks some cash into the mouth of the manager and heads home.  I thought of this episode when I saw that Amazon had opened its first automated grocery store to the public.  Automated shopping is not quite the same experience as when all time is stopped.  There are still other shoppers walking about picking up and bagging their goods before swiping their card and heading out of the store.  On opening day the excitement level of folks wanting to use this technology was such that there was long lines of people waiting to shop.  And there are those hundreds of cameras watching your every move, tracking your purchase item by item, down to the exact gram, something the Twilight Zone shopper didn’t have to worry about.   

 

In thinking about this, I was trying to think what advantages such a set up might offer shoppers.  The system is really not much different from current self-checkouts – which I admittedly do like.  In the automated stores, shoppers swipe their Amazon Go app, and scan a QR code on the way in, collect their wares, swipe their way out and receive an electronic receipt.  The shelves, similar to the bagging areas in self-checkouts, sense weight and know when an item has been removed and put into the shopper’s bag.

Speed of shopping is a cited benefit.  With no long line waits to unload and then reload your groceries, you can “just walk out.”  Amazon also owns, in addition to its online empire, many other “brick and mortar” stores, including Whole Foods and a growing arsenal of bookstores, that could be retrofitted to this technology.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love physical stores especially when it comes to things like whole foods and books!  Still, what is the benefit to the automated approach?

Let’s get back to the idea of stopping time.  Speed, it seems, given this scenario, is now equated in some quizzical way with quality.  Faster is better, right?  Wrong!  One of my all time favorite grocery stores is GreenStar Coop in Ithaca, NY.  One of the things I like about the store is that I almost always stop and converse with people, be it fellow shoppers, helpful floor staff or those assisting at check out.  There are often many people there – it is a popular store with expansion plans in the works – yet it rarely feels crowded and never feels rushed.  I take my time, even reading the bulletin board outside of the bathroom.  As for bookstores, why would anyone want to rush in, rush out.  Isn’t the point to pick up a book, look at its cover, read the inserts and the earliest pages?  If you are lucky, there is a little coffee shop on site with some seats so you can really take your time.

The advantage of stopping Time is being able to take your time.  It seems that each time there is a new technology people flock to it en masse and immediately embrace it as the newest, best thing.  Sure, there are beneficial technological advancements well worth swooning over.  Most of them were invented hundreds, even thousands of years ago.  Simple things like the wheel, pulleys, levels, plumbs, antibiotics or even the pencil and pen.  Hell, even the laptop is a grand new tool – can’t say I would write any other way.  Others are less cool – take for instance those big bombs that have little purpose beyond total destruction.  I am all for advancements – really I am – but before we jump at the next new thing, let’s stop for a moment, take a little time to think about what it might, or might not, have to offer.