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Modern Senior
14 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS • OCTOBER | NOVEMBER 2022

No Scan, No Sale

BY ARTHUR VIDRO

(50PlusWire) Thanks to computer technol-
ogy, life activities that used to be simple and
certain are no longer either.
Used to be I could wave a newspaper at
the candy-store clerk and leave the exact
change on the counter as I exited, without
breaking stride, even if other customers
were being served. But now I have to queue
up behind a half-dozen customers who all
seem to pay for their purchases with plastic
cards — a process that consumes a lot more
time than paying with real money.
Why do I have to wait in line now just to
place my exact change on the counter? So
the bar-code reader can scan the newspaper.
When bar-codes replaced price stickers “Let me get this straight. I’m in a supermarket. I want to buy a loaf of bread. We agree on the price. I am
and human thinking and common sense, an offering you the money. And you are refusing to accept it just because the computer that runs this joint
element of uncertainty was introduced into has to give its blessing to the transaction?” 50PlusWire/© Luchunyu , Shutterstock.com.
the purchasing process. For instance, will
merchandise ring up at the correct price? clerks now are often unfamiliar with the Technology per se is not the enemy,
I recall trying to buy an 88-cent box merchandise. They know only what their but our ever-growing dependence on it
of baking soda that rang up at $8.88. computers tell them. often creates new problems and idiocies.
I couldn’t convince the clerk the item So I had to return another day, when the Sometimes it seems we bend over backward
sold for less than a dollar everywhere. manager was in, to buy the 88-cent item for to serve our computers instead of having
Because of the side-effects of technology, 88 cents instead of for $8.88. the computers serve us.

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• DILIGENCE • INTEGRITY • RESULTS
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[email protected]

Easterseals-Goodwill
Senior Community Service Employment Program
www.esgw.org/scsep