Tales from Cashless Island

 

Following my amazing experience on the frontline of the Tesco Butlerian Jihad, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/03/tesco-butlerian-jihad-continues.html, more happy incidents have followed. When I was on my way home from the recent Bases Project conference I was amused to be told that the catering trolley service on the train had been cancelled because of a computer error; and because it's cashless they couldn't take any payments. Then as I left the station I decided to stop by in the city centre Boots to buy some razors. I find there are only two brands that are any good; Bic and Gillette and I'm boycotting Gillette following their horrible anti-white male advert. I bought a packet of ten Bic razors, but ended up paying half the labelled price. Why? The cashier accidentally entered me in for a student discount. This was because her previous customer had been a student and Oxford University subsidizes its students' access to essential groceries. She told me it was too late to change the order and so she was forced to offer me the discount. I didn't complain. I was just lucky, you might say; but the exact same thing happened on the bus home. The driver sold me a ticket with a student discount by mistake. A run of good luck like that is called "serendipity", and I was tempted to buy a Lottery ticket before it ran out. See here at about 1.27: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2024/12/bases-2024-christmas-seminars.html. I think things like that are meant to give us messages from God or the universe or whatever you want to call it. I think this was why I approached the next two incidents the way I did. I went to Sainsburys in Cowley, a store notorious for obsessive automation. There are only three manned checkouts and they are almost always closed. I stood with my basket beside one of them until a member of staff came over to ask me if I needed any help. I asked him to serve me at the checkout and he said he couldn't but he did take me over to the auto-checkouts and gave me full instructions. Then, just a few days ago, post-New Year, I was at Cowley Road Tesco Express again, the same store as the one in the background link. It was evening, an unusual time for me to call in. I usually do my grocery shopping after work, that's mid afternoon most days. None of the manned tills were open so I waited by one like in Sainsburys. "Can I help you?" somebody eventually asked. I replied: "Could somebody come and serve me at this checkout please?" The assistant's reaction was interesting. I think he knew exactly what my point was, which is good; it means people insisting on paying cash and addressing a human being instead of a machine is not an uncommon event at that shop. It took about three minutes to summon somebody and I recognized her immediately. She was a young short Asian lady wearing a hijab who had been extremely helpful to me one Christmas a few years ago. I had even called their helpline to commend her. You might wonder why I am writing a list of these anecdotes; what have they got to do with anything my readers would find interesting. It might read to you like a page out of a very boring person's diary. However, these incidents feel charged with meaning. I believe in synchronicity. I've seen it happen too many times for anybody other than a dedicated skeptic to write it off as coincidence. That's an unfalsifiable hypothesis anyway, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/skeptics-portal.html.