The Daily Procrastinator

In my life, it seems like Saturday is all business — errands and responsibilities — but Sunday is the day for fun. That’s the day I head out for a hike or day trip to the beach, activities made easier by packing a picnic lunch.

I have a local gourmet grocery store that makes fantastic sandwiches, but they don’t open until 9:00, and we’re often on the road by then. This leaves my Sunday lunch in the hands of the Safeway deli.

Now, I have to say that Safeway has some really great selections at their deli. A particular favorite is the Hollywood Cobb. It has grilled chicken, bacon (hey, nobody said it was healthy) and blue cheese crumbles.

When you go to Safeway, there is a touch-screen ordering system. You pick the sandwich that you like, choose your size, customize your condiments and pay with a swipe of the credit card. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. So far, in five attempts, they’ve only gotten the order right one time.

Now, keep in mind the parameters that we’re working with here. It’s usually 8:30 AM. Mine is the only sandwich being made. I ask for only one customization: no vinaigrette, because it makes the roll soggy by lunchtime. It’s very simple. Yet I’ve had it made with extra vinaigrette, no blue cheese (twice!) and no lettuce/tomato. I can understand forgetting a single ingredient during a hectic lunch rush, but not in the early morning. The worst part is that I never know it until hours have passed and I’m miles away.

The errors blow my mind. After all, the sandwich info pops out on a little slip of paper. You’re not subject to poor handwriting or a verbal miscommunication. I know exactly what I ask for. So I’ve learned my lesson (or so I thought). Today, when I picked up my completed sandwich, I compared their little slip of paper with what I input on the screen. Ah, a perfect match. I thought that all of the problems had been resolved.

But this sandwich took the cake. Today I sat down for lunch and opened the sandwich to discover, to my horror, that instead of grilled chicken breast with blue cheese, I had deli turkey with avocado, half a quart of mayo and bacon that appeared to be uncooked. I fail to understand how this can happen. One missing ingredient? Weird, but maybe understandable. An entirely different sandwich? Mind-blowing.

So short of finding a new sandwich shop that’s open before 9:00 AM, I have to resort to the old-fashioned method of leaning over the counter and scrutinizing their every move. Because as this experience has taught me, sometimes even the best technology ideas can’t trump plain old human contact.

Of course, there’s a business parallel in this story. So often we rely on technology to do our communicating: email, IM, text. When was the last time we picked up the phone? Perhaps more importantly, when was the last time you saw that contact in person?

The fact is that sometimes all of the whiz-bang communication tools that we have at our disposal can’t trump a face-to-face meeting. I’m as guilty as everyone else, and possibly even more so. I’m a writer. I do my best communicating in writing. I like to be able to look back and have a record of the conversation for my project file. But when I meet someone for coffee, I get all of that and more. I get to see the nuance of the project and the client. I get to hear about challenges that they face, challenges that I can sometimes help them to address.

Of course, it’s easy to say that I’m too busy to do it. It’s easy to fire off an email and wait for a reply. But sometimes, there’s just no replacement for the human touch.