November 13th, 2005 at 06:07pm Posted by Bill
This is the first in a series of posts about how I’m so old. I can’t believe I actually think about how things were “different when I was a kid.” That’s the kind of thing only old people say. See what I mean? I’m already acting like a fogie, and I’m only 36.
Anyway, I was watching the cashier ring up a bunch of stuff at Dollar Tree the other day, and I realized that the laser barcode scanner and its associated computerized inventory system is a pretty sophistimocated piece of technology. And it is now pretty standard equipment, even for super discount retailers like this.
I can remember when, as a kid, my family and I would do our grocery shopping at a little discount grocery store that occupied a small slice of the Gresham K-Mart building. This was probably around 1980 or 1981, maybe even very late 1970s. The store had no computerization at all, and tried to keep prices down by not employing nearly as many stock persons as the big chain grocery stores. They didn’t mark a price on any of their products, they only marked the price on a single tag on the shelf near the item itself. As you first walked in, you were expected to pick up a black grease pencil, and twist the little knob to expose new “lead”. You would then write the price on each of the items as you put them in your cart. When you checked out, the cashier would ring up your items on a standard cash register, entering each item’s price manually.
I remember that the cashiers had memorized most of the prices anyway, because on many occasions my mom had asked me to grab something from the other side of the aisle to put in the cart, and I would forget to mark the price. They always seemed to know how much the item cost, and I don’t remember them ever being wrong, or even needing to ask for a stock person to verify the price.
Entry Filed under: I'm So Old
4 Comments Add your own
1. rebecca marie | November 13th, 2005 at 9:15 pm
thank you, thank you, thank you. i was trying to tell someone about this recently and everyone in earshot looked at me like i was insane. the grease-pencil store that we would shop at is now the cash and carry on old 82nd (known to most of the world as 82nd drive, but to those of us born and bred it will forever be old 82nd). they didn’t have regular carts, either. just one of those trolley things with no sides and a wooden bottom. you’d fight over who got to sit on the trolley and who got to write the prices on the items. those were the days, eh?
2. scrapping dani | November 14th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
I find myself saying back in the day or when I was a kid and it seems so long ago.
Watching certain things on DVD. For example. I bought at Walmart for $5.50 Fragle Rock. I remembered how cool the little green guys were and I loved watching them build and then the fragle’s would eat what they just built. I thought that was the bomb. Now it is so lame to me.
Also sorry. I love Star Wars ok but 4,5 and 6 are so not as awesome as 1,2 and 3. I know it is because the technology is way better now. But man I wish they would redo 4,5 and 6. The scene at the end of episode 4 when Darth Vadar is beat and his ship spins away and he is inside and you see him spinning. SO LAME. Also Yoda man he looked so bad. The light sabors look lame too. They look so small and whimpy in 4,5 and 6. I also remember being so afraid of Darth Vadar and the “bad dudes” i.e. storm troopers and Darth Sidious. I could not watch any scene with him in it. Now I am like what was the big deal. I guess it is true that certain things are much cooler when you are a kid.
Heck I remember when it cost 10 cents to make a call on a pay phone. I also remember when stamps cost 23 cents.
3. tabitha jane | November 15th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
you could totally cheat with that system!
4. Bill | November 15th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
I know!
You know there just had to be people purposely marking things way chepaer than they should, and choosing a checkout lane that they knew had a new cashier that wouldn’t have memorized any of the prices.
Maybe that’s why EVERY store now is computerized with bar code readers.
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