One thing I have always disliked is when one becomes familiar with people who work at a place that one visits regularly. My sister Pat used to eat it up. If I went shopping with her, if I were home from college, we'd go to her neighborhood Minyards, & she knew everyone & introduced me to them. I hated it. I wanted to buy shit & get out.
When "pay at the pump" was introduced, that was the coolest thing for me. I remember stopping at a gas station that was closed late one night on my way to or from Austin & just buying gas. That was cool. Of course I do that a Costco now but there's a person paid to walk around & say hello to you. I fucking hate that. & of course there are "regulars" who talk to that person.
& yeah yeah I'd use self-checkout if I could everywhere I go.
This is a true story: when we first moved to Huntington, which is a small town, I ordered pizza twice from a place. The second time, the person who answered the phone recognized me & recognized the same order. I never went back there again. (This is not entirely about my point - I became vegan in the fall so didn't order pizza anymore.) (But my wife still brings this up.)
It's like I find it tacky when people want to be friendly like that. It drives me nuts.
But here's the thing: I don't really like online shopping. I don't do Amazon because it's a giant monolith that's destroying what's left of offline commerce that Wal-Mart didn't decimate. But I guess I prefer it to being around actual people.
Having said that, at Sprouts this week, one of the regular cashiers called me "sir" & I told her she could call me Gary. She said she didn't know, & I said yeah, people like me didn't get to walk around with nametags on. Though I wish we could!
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