Progress

Needing a few things the other morning, including boric acid--yesterday marked the annual march of ants from the garden to the kitchen--I stopped by our nearby chain pharmacy, and while they knew what it was, they don't carry it. "It doesn't move," my pharmacist said.

No doubt. Nor did they have it at the grocery store, though I am impressed that the stock girl on her own noted they had Borax, which uses it. She had a hard time finding it, though, amidst all the brands that look like they do move. I suppose that is the last box of Borax I will ever buy, or perhaps even see.

God forbid there should be useful basic products that allow you to do useful, basic things. Better to have an approved brand to serve your need, whatever that may be.

But the better indicator of progress was the checkout. They have about 20 or 25 lines. About six of them are still human staffed, and miracle of miracles, one of the six was actually open.

The important thing, though, was that of the 15 or so self service lines, three were turned on, thus ensuring that there was a small line of people waiting to check out.

There must be studies that show you get some impulse purchase sales that way, kind of like my Tim Horton's, which really does a good job of asking "do you want a shot of espresso dumped into the coffee you just ordered?" They say about every other customer says yes.

Here I've been worried about the robot revolution. I guess it's already happened, and we're the robots.