Ireland - the technological state (of things)

Small things excite me. New curtains in the Shire; taking consumer messages on household products literally; rocks... All very small in the larger scheme of things, but still greatly exciting and fun. As is shopping in Tesco. Now, Tesco does not only hold a beacon on advanced goods selection that would be hard to find equal to in provincial Norway, but it's also a great source of entertainment to pay for your purchases. Being a Googler, well fed on free lunches and a surplus of snacks and sweets, I don't go grocery shopping a lot. No need to buy dinner when you've had a three course meal for lunch, with choices like Moroccan or Indian, sushi and paninis, salads, cakes and Ben & Jerry's for dessert (sorry, bragging easily gets the better of me when I talk about the food at Google, which I tend to do a lot). So the one bi-weekly trip to the exotic aisles of Tesco is a big deal. Especially when you get to pick, scan and pay for your own items. Yes, I love it.

Never having worked in a shop or anywhere near bar codes (except the symbols on my local bar chart), I find scanning items myself great fun. Tesco have self service machines that let you bring your shopping cart up to the fantastically advanced, but easy to use, automated wonder-o-mat, scan each item yourself, with a cheerful Ping! after each item, scan your Club Card, pay with cash, card, coupons or a selection of other options that I never really looked into, and then it gives you the correct change, your receipt and even a heartfelt goodbye. You never even have to come in contact with the hard-worked and smiling staff if you don't want to, leaving them time to be busy arranging the multitudes of flour types and ready-meals in diligent shelf order. And

I may sound ironic, but I'm not. I think it is so much fun, and so efficient when nothing goes wrong - which it rarely does, although I struggled with the bag system in the beginning, and although buying loose weight fruit and vegetables can be a challenge the first time you do it. There are still cashier counters for those who prefer them, and staff helping you out if you look a slight bit more perplexed than normal. Self-service in Tesco - I'm loving it. It saves time, lines, staff and provides endless amount of entertainment. I'm almost considering shopping more often...

But this advanced technological marvel (OK, I might over-estimate it, but still!) makes me wonder how other electronic business that seems to be a piece of cake in other countries, can be so under-developed in the land of the Irish, the bar codes and the self-service counters. Online banking for instance! Or ordering broadband at home, cable TV - or electricity! The national providers of useful household technology, take heed - the solution to your rather lacking services might just be a shopping trip away. More on that to come...