I work at a bookstore.

Every night at said bookstore, we have to read the closing announcements.  Half an hour before closing, we read the first announcement.  Then at fifteen minutes, five minutes, and when we're closed.  We also have helpful guides to read from so that we get all the words correct, because they want us to read the exact same thing every night.

Here's more or less what we have to read:

"Attention, [store name] shoppers, this is just a friendly reminder that our store hours today are from 10 AM to 10 PM.  The time is now 10 PM.  We would ask that you make your final purchase at the front registers at this time.  If you need help locating an item, please seek out a friendly associate in a black apron to assist you.  [Store name] will reopen at 10 AM tomorrow morning for your shopping convenience.  Thanks for shopping at [store name], and have a great night."

Well, the other night, a friend and fellow associate of mine named Josh pointed out as we were getting ready to read announcements that one word-- "convenience"-- was misspelled.  We're not talking a slight misspelling here; the whole thing was just butchered.  It was spelled as "convenenve".

Now, this was funny enough.  But Josh went one step further to actually pronounce it that way on the announcements.  He read the whole thing, kept a straight face, and ended with, "Our store will reopen at 10 AM tomorrow morning for your shopping... [long pause] con-ven-en-vay."

I couldn't contain myself.  My eyes teared up, I was laughing so hard.  Interestingly enough, the dozen or so people in the store didn't even blink.  No, they carried on with their shopping, too preoccupied with nothing to notice anything outside the norm.

This really got me thinking.  First, about how changing something obvious in a subtle way doesn't attract much attention... but more so than that, how people will listen to you if you're positive and confident.  No matter how much bullshit you spout, if you are totally confident in your bullshit, it will take people FOREVER to notice that anything is amiss.

For instance, I once saw this video about confidence put into action.  A man would go to horse races, and pick a sure loser.  The horse he picked always had the odds WAY against him, which means the profits would be higher if he won.  Of course, the horse almost always lost.  But what he would do next is really intriguing.  He would approach the booth and present his ticket to the cashier as if it were the winning ticket.  When he was denied money, he would often positively say something like, "This is the horse you're looking for" or "This is a winning ticket," in a completely believable way.  In many occurrences, he would be paid, in full, as if it were truly the winning ticket.  He would do this several times a day, and at the end of the day, he would take all his money back to the booth and show the cashier his mistake.

I understand people make mistakes sometimes.  But for future reference, it would be wise to pay closer attention to things.  You might pick up on something you never noticed before.  Remember, this entry was presented to you for your convenenve.

Today at work, a middle-aged gentleman walked up to my register and bought two cookies and a drink.  His total was $5.16, and he handed me a five-dollar bill.  Then he handed me a quarter and a penny, and said, "You know why I'm giving you these, right?"

I blinked.  "Um... I'm sorry?"

"I would like a dime in change.  I could have just given you the quarter, but I'm giving you the penny too because I'd like a dime."

I was a little confused as to why he would tell me this, but he explained that recently he was in a store and went to pay for his items, gave the cashier extra change so he'd have fewer pennies to worry about, and she gave him the change back because she couldn't understand why he would pay extra.

I understood immediately why he would give me $5.26, and I do the same thing... because pennies are just a pain to carry around.  I began to wonder why people would even question this, and he went on to tell me how at his friend's store, they recently installed $6,000 change-dispensing machines because the cashiers couldn't count properly and always gave incorrect change.  Now, they only have to give the customers their change in dollar bills, and the machine spits out the proper amount of coinage.

My question is... is all this simplifying really worth it?  Sure, it's making life easier, but it takes the value out of learning.  An ordinary person should be able to do mental math without a calculator, and they should be able to count coins correctly when they give people their change.  Heck, it tells the cashier on the computer screen how much change to give the customer, so what's the point in needing change-dispensers.  You could just take it a step further and argue that we don't even really need cashiers anymore.  Computers could do that by themselves too.

It's the same mentality that parents have when, instead of teaching their kid to tie their shoes, they temporarily solve the problem by buying the kid shoes with Velcro straps instead of laces.  Sure, it's fine now... but you can't wear Velcro shoes when you're all grown up and the CEO of a major corporation.  (Then again, I'm not sure if you could be CEO and not know how to tie your shoes...  If you don't know that, there must be plenty of other things you don't know too.)

I'm just old fashioned, I guess.  I could order my pizza online, but I prefer to call it in because I like to speak to a courteous worker doing his job.  I could buy one of those little robotic vacuums that cleans the room for me, but if I do the job myself I know I'll be more satisfied with the end result (and, let's face it, knowing that you've cleaned up after yourself AND doing a darn good job of it just makes you happy, doesn't it?).  There are all kinds of ways that we could cut corners in the Age of Computers, in fact we do it all the time.  But I do think that people hold a much greater opinion of themselves when they accomplish tasks on their own.  Or maybe that's just the old person in me.