Cash registers, scales and refrigerated cases were all considered modern. Months later, after a series of escalating demands and threats to cut off credit, the man of the house stopped by to put a few dollars towards the account. The clerk totaled up the goods and charged them to the family’s account. While the clerk was scooping navy beans out of a barrel and grabbing packages of crackers, the lady chatted with her neighbors. In those sexist times, the lady of the house, or perhaps a maid, would give the clerk a list. Merchandise was safely behind the counter. Stores carried no more than a few hundred boring items. Frank Baum's Princess Ozma of Oz was the only person with a video phone. Grocery shopping 100 years ago was very different. You pull out your video phone, point it at the soft drink display, call home, and demand to know “EXACTLY what kind of grape soda do you want?” Finally, you push your shopping cart full of needed and unneeded items to the front of the store, pay and carry everything home. People less honest than you or me may taste a grape or even slip something into a pocket. Childlike, you not only test the 43,844 items with your eyes, but you pick them up, shake them, compare weights and set them back down. You let your eyes roam from brightly colored box to brightly colored box. Perhaps when you go to the supermarket, you run from aisle to aisle with preplanned precision, picking up only those items you need and finish shopping in the 10 minutes you have allocated.
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