Out of order

Hi Mom,

A very strange thing happened at Whole Foods. I had gone to pick up sundry items for Steven's stay, organic chicken, and some rice pilaf on sale. *Note: The Whole Foods in Union Square is always busy, with lines wrapped around the store and fleets of people on line to buy their sesame-basted kale salad or whatnot.

I made a beeline for the always long but slightly faster-moving express lane, where they restrict you to ten items or less and regulate your movement with the help of a giant automated lane board. You divide into columns, it's divided into columns, it tells you what checkout your column goes to next on a rotating basis (they're numbered). Flawless, except when the whole board fizzles.

The voice in the regular line chirped on, but the express lane was strangely silent. Employees materialized to help manually usher customers to the correct checkout. People in line discussed what could have happened and about the line chaos that could potentially ensue. I went home wondering if the automated system was really that much more effective--wouldn't people prefer a human directing them all the time, just on principle? Then I remembered nobody's lunch break is that long, and that we all go for expediency around here.

Love,

Karen