New Shopping Protocol

I have seen people - usually guys - on their cellphones, standing in front of a shelf of products in a grocery store, completely done in by too many options and choices, reading off the selections to someone on the other end of the phone, in hopes that they will bring home the right stuff and save themselves a repeat journey.

My use of cell phones in the grocery store has so far been limited to calling Drew and commanding him to meet me at the checkout as I am ready to leave and he needs to stop sneaking stuff into the cart when I am not looking! Some of the grocery stores, like the Pittsford Wegmans, is actually so huge that we could wander for days and not see each other. At least I don't have to go to the service desk and have them make an embarrassing announcement!

Today was different. I made my usual list of necessities and asked Kiel to go to the store. I knew perfectly well what I meant when I made the list, almost to the point of knowing where on the shelf to find these items. And I thought that since Kiel lives in the same house and uses the same products, he would know too.

But I found myself the "person on the other end of the phone" repeatedly over the course of the next hour as Kiel tried to sort out my list and get exactly what I needed. And Drew was reduced to calling me to ask permission to "sneak" his treats into the cart as Kiel wouldn't allow anything not on the list. I had to laugh. Gives a whole new interpretation to shopping online!

Even five years ago we would not have been able to do our shopping in this way as not all of us had cell phones. The world changes paradigms as quickly as a chameleon changes colors, as almost as imperceptibly. Suddenly you look around and realize how vastly the landscape has changed.

While my foray into online shopping is temporary, and I hope to be back to cart leaning by mid fall, the truth is that the world will not change back just because I don't take advantage of the potential. We struggle with the question at work "Just because the technology exists, should we be using it?" The answer is, someone will, and it might as well be us playing around with the possibilities, seeing what unexpected benefits might arise.

At least in this case, Kiel came home with all the right stuff, and even Drew got some treats without a major battle. Yeah!