The other day I did my banking at an ATM. I pumped my own gas, paying at the pump with my credit card. I bought some groceries , used self scan at the grocery store, bagged them myself and wheeled them out to my car.
Not too long ago, I would have dealt with the teller at the bank. An attendant would have pumped my gas, and cleaned the windshield as well. At the grocery store, not only would a cashier have rung through my purchases, she would have put them in a bag, and, if I would have had a cartload of groceries, called a boy to wheel them out to my car, put them in my trunk, and take the cart away.
I would have had contact with four people. I probably would have gotten to know them, and there would be a conversation. If I knew them well, I would learn about their lives, how there families were, and that information would be passed around to other people who know them. They would ask the same of me. Sometimes I would be asked of my mother, or my grandmother.
It was how the a town the size of ours worked. Everyone knew everyone, or knew someone who knew someone.
Self service may be more efficient, but something is lost.
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