Amazon has made convenience king, offering shopping from your workplace, armchair, or even while commuting with a single click and delivery to your door, perhaps within the hour. Now it is trialling a queue-less, cashier-less grocery store. Sensors will track which items customers pick up and bill their account as they walk out. The benefit to those in a rush is obvious – but it means another lost opportunity for social contact, in the queue with fellow shoppers, with cashiers or the staff overseeing erratic self-checkouts. Such connections, fleeting as they are, can be life-saving for the chronically lonely and good for others too, reminding us that polite interaction matters as much as getting what we want this second. About a million older people go a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or relative, and loneliness is linked to mental and physical health problems, imposing a broader social and economic strain. Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire this month suggested introducing checkout “slow lanes” for older people who may feel isolated. Amazon’s approach may make better business sense by appealing to our impatience, but it comes at a human cost.
