https://dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to-be-able-to-buy-things
"Many decades ago, humans developed a process by which they could go into a
store, pick an item off the shelf, and pay for it at the checkout counter. A
few years ago, we lost it. Now you ring a buzzer, wait for an overworked
employee to unlock an item that costs $5.99, and navigate the emotional
complications of feeling like both a suspected criminal and an entitled ass.
The late Soviet Union was damned by the iconic image of people waiting in
endless lines for scarce consumer goods. When we look back at the dying days of
America, perhaps we’ll think of waiting in dots, surrounded by plentiful
products locked away because our bosses fear and loathe us so much they have
forgotten how selling things works.
Why has our society gone backward in this small but really annoying way? Surely
there must have been an epidemic of shoplifting? No, there really wasn’t.
Instead, the great lotion lockup was a corporate moral panic, which has been a
disaster for their profits and for the rest of us a degrading enshittification
of running basic errands.
It’s far from the most important way our lives have gotten worse, but it might
be the most pointless – which makes it useful for understanding so much else
about a moment in history defined by breathtaking self-sabotage.
What’s happened to going to the Walgreens or Target is a store-sized version of
what’s happened to living in America. It’s the experience of being subject to
the decisions of a ruling class that responds to every challenge with
authoritarianism, greed, and the same levels of poise and wisdom as an inbred
Pomeranian."
Via Esther Schindler, who wrote "This story has been going around. Now that
I’ve read it, I understand why."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
