Thursday 22 February 2024

The Happy Shopper

 
For some reason, all my happiest experiences at the moment seem to be taking place when I go grocery shopping. Just a couple of weeks after the Butlerian Jihad in Tesco's, see background link below, humanity has won another victory against the forces of robotic domination. I entered a branch of the Cooperative and before I even got through the door a member of staff approached me with a worried and apologetic expression on his face. "I'm very sorry." he began. "We're experiencing technical problems at the moment which means we can only accept cash payments." Do I need to tell you what my reaction was?... As I grabbed a basket and went off to the shelves a young man who looked like a student entered through the sliding doors and the staff member told him the same news. He shrugged. "Okay, I'll have to go somewhere else then." I spontaneously launched into a street lecture: "Hey, mate. Use cash! If you don't the government will dictate to you what you buy, when you buy it and whether you can! It's essential for freedom! You have no control over your life otherwise." He glared at me irritably and walked out. A tall man in a parka nearby said to me: "Nice try, but they won't listen." I laughed and pointed at my beanie: "I try to keep my tin foil hat hidden under this one." When I got to the till I said to the man serving me: "Ah, I'm in liberty central. How long till the Deep State regain control of this CoOp?" He gazed at me nonplussed. He was Mediterranean looking, possibly Albanian, and clearly his English lessons hadn't covered popular conspiracy theories yet. As I left the shop I raised my fist in the air and yelled: "Stop the New World Order." One of the other cashiers smiled and waved; he knows me quite well because I'm a regular in there. Hours later I still feel a warm glow when I think about this incident.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-banknotes.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2023/10/have-we-passed-peak-cashless.html.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good one Ben. Nice heart lifting story! Funnily enough the last time I was in Blighty (shopping at Millets, as it happens, buying a wallet for my cash and loose change), when I got to the till I paid with cash - obviously - and a young lad said to me; "Oh, you're one of them an old fashioned cash men?", I just laughed and went on my merry way.

On the subject of money and shopping: a) I really dislike self-service checkouts, and judging by the queues at the normal ones (with cashiers) I don't think I'm alone. Thoughts?, and b) Do you remember during the plandemic how they really ramped up the war on cash?????

Best
Calpestavo68 ;-)

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Thanks, Calpestavo. It's interesting that cashiers say things like that. I was asked by a trolley lady on a train: "Are you one of these 'I love cash' people?" Obviously there must be a lot of us which is good. Naturally the govt milked the plandemic for as much as they could in advancing the cashless society. However it seems to have run out of steam. The same goes for auto-checkouts. See the background links.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ben, I checked out the 'background links' - and had a little laugh at the comments thread. I wonder if he (Anon) worked for the Inland Revenue!? LOL

Luckily where I live, cash is still king. But clearly there is a 'global' plot to get rid of cash and, frankly, push hard for CDCs, RFID chips under the skin and, their final enslavement and control mechanism trick; a social credit based Universal Basic Income - no jab, no money, travel or proper food to eat - just bugs in your miserable little pod with your VR set on your head (if you're lucky!)! :-O

Calpestavo68