I went out for a cup of coffee at my local Starbucks today (I might make a few too many trips as a father to a newborn). Service was fantastic, the coffee was stimulating, and all was right with the world.
Until I handed over my card to pay.
What I saw unfold was something of pure silliness. What made it even more absurd, is that no one seemed to even notice what was going on.
When my card was swiped, the point-of-sale system spit out a receipt (or something of record of transaction, I didn't see what was printed). This was promptly thrown away by the cashier, into a trash can that was placed next to her, brimming with receipts. The second copy was for me to sign, and while I was signing this, two more receipts were printed by the machine, and promptly thrown away.
That means for every transaction, there are 3 receipts thrown away for every 1 that is kept for records. To me, this is something that's broken.
Seth Godin did a fantastic talk back in 2006, about recognizing broken things, and I'll post the video below. When you see someone throw away 3 pieces of paper, and save 1, and that's just my cup of coffee, the math adds up fast of all the Starbucks around the world and the massive waste that's accumulated.
How would this get fixed? Could a strategic partnership with something like Square be right? I won't make any assumptions on their financial motivations, but this did get me thinking of how we observe things, and so often miss things that are right in front of us.
When you go around your day today, what do you see as broken? Enjoy the talk below!
Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo
No comments:
Post a Comment