Fiction Shorts

Dear Grocery Store Owner …

The Vignette Gazette Edition #206 | Registers

Image created by the author via MidJourney

Mr. Mendelsohn,

As a loyal shopper at your store for nearly a decade, I never thought I would write this kind of letter. Your decision to use robots in your establishment has bothered me for a while, but what I saw on my last visit convinced me to never step into your store again.

The machines already creep me out. They glide silently through the aisles, supposedly looking for spills or safety hazards. But sometimes it seems like they stay in place for too long and stare at customers. Recently, they seemed to gather around the self-checkout registers as though they were studying us.

Then last week, a little girl began running down one of the aisles. One of your robots calmly let the child ride on its base. At first, everyone smiled because the girl immediately stopped crying, but then the robot turned and rode through a set of swinging employee-only doors before dropping the child down a chute.

Seconds later, another robot rolled up to the frantic mother and announced in a pleasant voice, “Your child is ready for pickup in the basement.”

As I stood there horrified, I noticed another robot quietly reaching into a woman’s purse and removing her wallet. Before I could rush over to warn her, another machine picked up a broomstick from aisle six and moved directly into my path, standing like a security guard blocking an exit.

That was enough for me.

Whatever is happening inside your store is not normal, so I will no longer patronize your business.

One piece of advice: if I were you, I’d start watching my back. With all those robots wandering around, I’m not entirely convinced you’re running the store anymore.

Sincerely,

A Former Customer

This story was inspired by the fun, letter-writing prompt from Lynn L. Alexander:

[embed]The Vignette Gazette Edition #206 Wednesday, July 15medium.com

RMW