Hardware and Speed, How Cool Is That?

I needed a bolt, nut and washer for my wheelbarrow, so I stopped in at the Big Box hardware store (the orange one, not the blue one) and without too much trouble, and with no help, managed to find them.

If you've ever done this, you know buying bolts and nuts is a pain in the cashier's derriere. You can't fit a tag with a SKU number on them. The cashier must grab a binder, flip through it and find the matching hardware, enter a nine digit number for each little piece and the crowd behind you builds with people and impatience, disgusted with themselves for getting into line behind you. Being a Capitalist, I imagine the price of the washer- eleven cents- versus the time the poor checker must waste on this endeavor, and I figure the orange Big Box hardware store-or even the blue one-would be better off to just leave boxes of them in the entrance and give them away. Okay, maybe not.

But wait! Better yet, don't wait. The checker found tiny numbers on the parts, entered them and up on the screen popped images of bolts, nuts and washers. Tink tink tink tink tink (that's the sound of her tapping the touchscreen. It doesn't really make a 'tink' sound, but more like 'squirk.') and voila, the part numbers showed up and we finished the ring-up in no time. Wow! That deserves a Rave. Somebody figured it out, and God bless 'em. In addition, they've mastered the Visa swipe, the frosting on the cake. Slide the card and squiiiink (that's the sound of the machine pooping out the receipt. It doesn't really make a 'squiiiink' sound, but more like a 'whirr'), out popped the receipt. Yes, it's now faster to charge than pay cash and get change. Somebody did their homework, and for us folks who have the attention span and patience of an amoeba, it's a good thing indeed.