By: Lance Winslow
The other day, I went to go buy some gas for my little red sports car down at the local gas station. It’s one of those really cool new c-stores with all the bells and whistles, trimmings and a car wash. As I was there, unfortunately the credit card reading machine wasn’t working at the gas pump, and a little notation came up on the digital screen— “please pay inside” —and of course I was perturbed because I just wanted to buy my fuel at nearly $4 dollars per gallon and leave.
There’s no sense in adding insult to injury making me walk into a convenience store and tempt me to buy more. Just before I got to the door of the convenience store, a gal in her mid-30s almost bumped into me because she was busy surfing the Internet on her smart phone. I am thinking to myself ,”Hey, watch where you’re going lady,” and also, I admit, I was thinking, “so what” if she bumps into me, she’s pretty. But then I looked up, and I saw a sign inside the store, and the sign said:
“Please watch for text messagers, because they are not watching out for themselves!”
I almost laughed my head off—that was the funniest sign I’d ever seen, but it is totally true isn’t it? I’m not sure how the convenience store survives with all of their perfect lighting, excellent branding, and all the promotional signage, when everyone is busy looking at their smart phone surfing the Internet, text messaging or talking – that they never see any of it.
Nevertheless, I’m sure that sign didn’t offend anyone who was busy text messaging because they would have never looked up there and saw the sign in the first place. But, if they did happen to see the sign, maybe it might make them think?
Maybe if they saw the sign they might consider watching where they’re going next time. In fact, as I drove out of the gas station, there was another person who walked right in front of my car, didn’t even see me, and I had to stop to let them go by, and mind you I’m driving a red sports car, bright red, you can’t miss it. This time it was a guy mid 20s and big, he’d have dented my hood anyway, no sense in pushing my luck there.
Now then, what good are warning signs if only 30% of the people are reading them, while the other 70% are oblivious to the rest of the world, as they are too busy playing in the virtual one?
Lance Winslow