I am old enough to remember when there was personal service, where someone spoke to you and actually knew your name. This is rare now and generally restricted to a few small coffee shops. A recent trip to a large hardware company met only self-service lanes with the personal service lane closed although I was told I could get personal service via the gardening exit.

A later trip to the major food supermarket met at least a dozen self-service bays, but two personal service lanes with full trolleys being served and even fuller trolleys queued up. The 15 items or less lanes have become zero lanes. I gave up waiting and left frustrated.

These are only the two most recent examples of the declining personal service and the rise of automation. Beware the robots ‘serving’ us as it will only be a short step to them deciding what we should buy, the low sugar version, the cheaper no brand version although they will still be instructed to sell cigarettes as they are so profitable. As one famous robot said, “I’ll be back”, well I won’t be if there is no personal service.

Dennis Fitzgerald,
Melbourne, Australia