Experiencing the New World Order in Lowe’s.....

We just moved and have had to make multiple trips to Lowe's for closet rods, bathroom gadgets, hooks, towel bars, all those little (now overly-priced) doo-dads that make a home a home. My husband was at the return counter on trip number three, while I hovered at the front entrance and happened to look up. I saw a small TV monitor with me on it and an orange box around my head. I made a face at the camera.

I asked my husband later why my head was in an orange box on a monitor at Lowe's. He stated nonchalantly, "Facial recognition..." Cough! My face was being scanned by AI in Lowe's? I told my sister, who said, "Geez! I knew they were doing that in China, but now here?" Why did Lowe's need to scan its customers walking through the front door? We then noted no cashiers - all self-checkout. When did that happen? There were plenty of cheerful employees standing around to assist, but you did all the work.

The movers brought the top of our concrete bird bath but left the base (among other things) behind. They would not sell just the base, so $65 later, we had another whole bird bath.

The same thing at Home Depot, several fast food joints and supermarkets. The change was subtle; the rest of the store seemed normal, but you do the work. Every self-checkout had a kiosk to self-order or a monitor and the words "recording" scrolled across the bottom. Every day shoppers' heads are now literally in the Clouds.

I wore dark sunglasses in Lowe's today, and left the one-stem basil and one-stem curly parsley on the shelf. I found basil the $3.98 a stem, $5.98 a stem for the coveted flat parsley. Appalling! At those prices, I should not have to check myself out. I found full potted herbs at the grocery store.

The house we bought had no toilet paper rolls or towel holders. I guess the woman who lived there was fine without them. Before we had them installed, we cheaped out and bought a stand-alone toilet paper holder. For $25 it wobbled and came with this little soap dish on top.

As I looked at the picture on the carton a little closer, it turned out to be a "phone shelf." Good to know if you needed to take a dump, you won't miss a call. It toppled over and the fake "aluminum" broke in half. We returned it. I hope these tariffs remove cheap Chinese goods forever!

I thought about all those cashiers who need that job, who liked the interaction with the public and added to the personal touch that businesses used to have. Banks are next. One teller I am finding, and that's it. I keep getting texts about downloading apps for absolutely everything, or to give that Gold Star Google review that every business now depends, the company even pays someone, like the pest control tech or the local car wash, $10 extra for MY five-star Google review!

All this while an increasing number of stores are closing their doors or filing for bankruptcy, and large corporations are merging to become more powerful - Chase and Discover being the latest.

Lastly, I want to mention that at the closing for our house at the title company, we both had to have our faces scanned by our phones. These were sent to the title company's internal procedures before we could proceed with the closing. This was a first. They said there is so much scamming now, they have to do it as an added security measure!

Facial recognition software to shop at Lowe's? Pull out your hoodie and cheap sunglasses. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, and Klaus is checking off his boxes whether we like it or not.