Just had an interesting experience at a new gelato store here. It is located on the first floor of a shopping mall. No walls at all, just tables in the hallway, with shops all round so to say.
What makes them different is the fact, that they are using robots to get you your order. They also have waiters of course, as not everybody is keen on ordering via smartphone in a gelato store.
As a Digital Executive, I actually am a big fan of new things like this one, and was actually lucky to get a table at all, since the place was pretty packed.
So, I found my table, sat down and read the instructions about the ordering process. Shortly after an old lady arrived and – didn’t find an open table. Gentleman as I am, I offered her a seat at my table of course 😉
So we started chatting and she asked me about the ordering process. Therefore I explained to her: “see, here is a QR code, that you’re going to scan with the camera of your smartphone. Then a website is opening in your browser, and you can place your order. AND: they even give you a 3% discount, if you pay via PayPal right away.”
She looked at me as if I were an alien. She didn’t say anything but her face expression was communicating: “I DON’T WANT THAT”.
Therefore I raised my hand, a waiter stopped by, and I kindly said “the lady here would like to order“ – and she did.
After a couple of minutes, the robot with my order on it stopped in front of me. It had a display with a friendly looking face plus the table no# at the front , and it said to me:
“Hey, this is your order. Please take it”.
Which I did, and then pushed the “I’m ready button” on the robot’s display. The old lady was watching me and her eyes got bigger and bigger. I could sense that she didn’t trust the whole thing, and wasn’t feeling good at all.
Then a table beside us became available, and: the lady immediately stood up, and got this table on her own.
I felt sorry for her, knowing that she grew up in a different period of time and really felt lost. I tried to help her as good as I could, but wasn’t really able to make her feel good unfortunately. For her, this ordering process felt like a different world.
Which brings us back to the the topic of an #openmindset. Everybody would say „yes“, when being asked about lifelong learning, but not many people actually do, as I just had experienced in this gelato store.
And yes, it is an effort to read a new book every week, keeping that mindset of trying things out, staying current with latest inventions, and changes in general.
However it pays off! It makes this life interesting and joyful!
Happy weekend to everyone!