There used to be a time when shopping was so straightforward. Into your shop of choice you went, selected what you wanted or asked for help, took your purchase to the till and paid for it. But not any longer, it seems. Consider the following breathless press release.
“The number of customers who want digital-only contact methods doubled between 2019 and 2020, highlighting the effectiveness of digital channels and their importance over physical-only interactions.
“An omnichannel experience is important to consumers, especially given that older consumers and those on low incomes are more likely to be digitally excluded, but a digital-first strategy will allow you to meet growing customer demand.”
Given that I fall into the older consumer demographic, it’s probably no wonder that I feel bewildered. Do I really want an omnichannel experience? I think the answer is certainly no and that, wherever possible, I’ll stick to bricks-and-mortar establishments. Seems so much easier.
A couple of interesting coinages recently. During the Wales v France rugby match, I’m sure I heard one commentator talk of a player’s skillability. What is wrong with “skill” is beyond me. And what on earth is a “sunshine sandwich”, as offered by a weather forecaster last week?
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the insidious creep of emojis, so was gratified to read a piece in the papers about their baleful influence. Research from the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University included the following finding: “A separate body of research shows that less powerful people desire social proximity more than powerful people do. Consequently, signalling that you’d like social proximity by using pictures is essentially signalling that you’re less powerful.”
So it seems that emojis are for wimps. So, emoji users, desist unless you want the world to know that you’re twerps of the first water.
• Jonathan Bouquet is an Observer columnist
