Our Automated World

Today, my dad and I went to the Super Stop and Shop in Dedham to buy various things. The Super Stop and Shop is an amazing supermarket that we sometimes go to on weekends to buy supplies that can't be found easily in any other one place. I like to do the driving, because the route is nice and it is good practice. Another thing I get practice with there is using the automated check-out counter--the wave of the future! Soon everyone will be using them, so the sooner one learns to use them, the better. For the most part, the automated check-out is extremely convenient. You just go there, push buttons on the touch-screen, swipe your items over the laser beam, and put them in bags at the end of the conveyor belt. Then you pay by puting the money through a slot. No other humans are needed, and it is very nice. But today, we must have bought more than we usually do, because the machine wanted a signature. It started talking: "Please use the electronic pen to sign your name on the signature tablet," it said in that female-ish computer voice, "after signing, press the 'signature complete' button on the monitor screen." We could not find the signature tablet, and kept trying to write on different places, none of which worked. Meanwhile, the computer kept repeating its instructions over and over again, as if saying them many times would help us figure out what to do. It must have said it at least thirty times, because we stood there for several minutes, trying to figure out what to do. At one point, I thought it got louder, as if it thought we were deaf. Maybe I was imagining things. Eventually, I noticed a button that said: Need help/cancel sale. We tried pushing it, and the voice said, "Please stand by. Help is on the way." "Oh no," I moaned. "Now they must be sending a person to help us." We desperately tried to figure out what to do, still in vain. Soon another customer came up behind us. Seeing our trouble, he pointed to a little screen on the counter and said that it was the place on which to sign. My dad signed there, but still the computer repeated, "Please use the electronic pen..." Then we realized that it wanted us to press the "signature complete" button. We did, and all was well. "Don't forget to take the receipt," the computer reminded us. I took it, and we left as quickly as we could.

-Philip