Big news at the market. Russ and Donna have sprung for scanners for heaven’s sake. Word has it that the hifalutin’ technology will be installed this week. The character of the market will be changed forever.
The way it is now, customers from Away will heft a bag of dogfood onto the counter, barcode face up, confident that we can infer a price from that. They are always astonished that we do not have barcode readers. They conclude that we are hopelessly backwoods or endearingly quaint, depending on their own attitudes or moods.
Customers from Around Here know that we do not have barcode readers and tend to hunt for items that have price tags stuck to them. Regulars patiently recite the prices they’ve memorized for their own favorite brand of cereal or jerky, or grin wickedly as they pile unpriced goods on the counter. It’s a little game we play. Can we remember the price? Can we find it on the list? Will we have to page a Stock Person? Or, if it’s late in the evening and really slow, will we trudge back to the shelves and figure out what to charge for the #%& can of soup? It’s amazing what we can find entertaining up here in mid-winter.
This summer the scanners. Can card readers at the gas pumps be far behind?
Yes, for those of you from Away, it is true. When motorists purchase fuel at the Eastport Market, they pump it into their vehicles and then come inside to pay up. Every now and then someone forgets and drives off, but pretty soon they’re back again, looking abashed. Once in awhile we call Sheriff Bean about a drive-off, but that is extremely rare. Someday this amusement, too, will be gone, and we will be like every other gas station in the world. Pay first, people, then pump.
Some things, however, will never change. The evening denizens of the market will always be good for a story, and Message Shirts are a popular wardrobe choice.
Dennis Schneider says he really did render bombs harmless back in the day, although he was never a bomb technician. When he was in the service he’d be sent out to clear mines. You must, I said, have been very skillful. No, he said—expendable. Well. He is expendable no more, as it’s hard to know what we’d do without him around here.
Now I’m off to find out what Mama Nature’s Very Bad Mood has done to the orchards hereabouts.
Torch Lake Views 
P.j. grath
May 11, 2010
I hope you will find something surprising and beautiful in the orchards and not too, too much damage. It really IS bleak weather, though, isn’t it? Sigh.
Fee
May 11, 2010
My granny refused to stand anywhere near the bar-code scanners (very new in her last years of life) because she was convinced they’d “fry her brain”. I don’t know what she’d make of the internet – she regarded the microwave oven as if it fell off the space shuttle!
Scott Thomas Photography
May 11, 2010
Welcome to the 20th century. Take your time getting to the 21st, it isn’t all that. ;;-)
Gerry
May 11, 2010
PJ, it is bleak indeed. But Kings are optimistic–dunno how you can farm at all if you’re a pessimist–and I’ve decided it’s going to be a good summer anyway. Maybe, as Betsy King says, excellent quality will make up for small quantity.
Fee, I’m beginning to wonder if your granny knew what she was talking about. There has to be some explanation for 21st century politics, and microwaves falling off the space shuttle are as useful as anything else I’ve heard.
Scott, I believe we’ll continue to take it one step at a time here in the Township. The scanners are here–I was over at the market this afternoon and saw them. Hmmm.
Cindy Lou
May 12, 2010
This sounds so much like our little town of Baraga – 🙂 The wind here last night was crazy wild – hope the orchards were spared?!?
Gerry
May 12, 2010
We’ve had Weather, too – the wind nearly blew me over yesterday while I was trying to take pictures in the chestnut orchard. The verdict is mixed. Jim King is feeling optimistic, but then, as he says, farmers are always optimisitic, else they couldn’t go on. Wait, wait – as soon as I saved this I saw that I’d already said it. Never mind, I’m leaving it in. It bears repetition.
Anna Surface
May 12, 2010
I had to laugh about Dennis’ t-shirt. He has a wry sense of humor, doesn’t he? Well, in our little rural town, the library and store went to barcode scan a few years ago. I do remember, and not long ago, products without price stickers and the card catalog at the library along with cards in the books for checking out. Now we have gone modern along with pay before pump at the local gas station. Life, don’t you know… 🙂
Gerry
May 12, 2010
I enjoy Dennis’s sense of humor too.
Fifty years from now, if anyone is still able to read any of the posts that clutter the blogosphere, people will wonder what on earth we were talking about. Either way, life its ownself will go on. At least in the form of those miserable little midges!
Reggie
May 12, 2010
LOL. I was in stitches reading this, Gerry. I would LOVE to live in such a place where barcodes and scanners and such fiddle-faddle are still alien.
I was stumped, though, to read the bit about paying FIRST and then PUMPING the petrol. Huh? How do you know how much petrol will go into your tank? How do they work out the costs?
Here, in South Africa, we have “petrol jockeys” or “filling station attendants”, who fill up the car for you, check your oil and water, wash your windscreen, and even check your tyre pressure. You tip them a couple of Rands for the extra service.
When the tank is filled up, you hand over your cash, or your Garage Card (which is like a special credit card for buying petrol and paying for car services and new tyres and stuff – you can’t use a normal credit card to buy petrol), and they disappear into the shop and bring back the slip of paper, which you sign. Then you get your card back, give them a tip, and say goodbye. 🙂
Motorists are not allowed to fill up the tank themselves. I suppose this must sound a bit odd for you, hey? I guess that here most people actually don’t know how to do it, and there is also a big problem with crime… the honour system really wouldn’t work here. 🙂
So, just in case you’re planning to visit us, remember that you do not fill up the car yourself, Gerry! Giggle… I was just picturing the hullaballoo if you tried… LOL.
Gerry
May 12, 2010
See? Virtual travel is very educational.
We used to have pump jockeys/gas station attendants, too. It was wonderful. They did all those things you mentioned, which is probably why a lot of us kept our cars running a long, long time.
The way you determine what to pay is that you swipe your credit card through the card reader and then pump until you reach the amount you want to pay or a full tank, whichever comes first. Your card is charged when you stop pumping.
If you want to pay cash, you go inside and pay the attendant, who sets the equipment to pump out that much fuel and no more. If you overestimate the amount you need, you stop pumping at a full tank and go inside to get your change.
When you do this a lot, you have a pretty good idea of how much it will cost to fill your tank. Too much, no matter how you look at it. Sigh.
Leslie
May 12, 2010
Love it!
Gerry
May 12, 2010
Of course you do! It has cars in it.