{"id":3215,"date":"2025-04-16T21:14:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T01:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=3215"},"modified":"2025-04-16T21:14:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T01:14:30","slug":"discounted-by-a-droid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/16\/discounted-by-a-droid\/","title":{"rendered":"discounted by a droid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A couple of years ago, I got an odd discount at KFC.\u00a0 I was placing my order with the clerk at the register when I noticed something briefly flash across the screen.\u00a0 When I got my receipt, I realized it was a senior discount.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have to show a Golden Buckeye or AARP card – the clerk looked at me and decided I qualified.\u00a0 I was 50 at the time and the discounts are for those 55 and older.\u00a0 So he was close, I guess, but it still rankled.\u00a0 I even made a haiku <\/a>about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a more reasonable assumption than back when I was 43 and was mistaken for 55.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past weekend, Jim and I were at Michael\u2019s craft store.\u00a0 He was ready to go and I went to the I\u2019m-assuming-quicker self-checkout since I only had three items and the only lane open with a clerk had two people with full carts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scanned the first item and set it aside. I then scanned the second item and looked at the screen to see if the sale price rang up.\u00a0 It was instead 4 times what I expected – it wasn\u2019t half-off like the sign on the shelf suggested and I had rung it up twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to cancel and edit the quantity – but it just said, \u201cHelp is on the way!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which means I had failed as a human being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I was waiting for \u201chelp\u201d, I saw on the screen that I had gotten a senior discount – 10% off each of the items. While I was puzzling that out, a clerk came up and performed her incantations. I also had her deactivate the anti-theft on one of the items while I scanned the last one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finished and paid as the clerk was coming back and I bagged my three items and took the receipt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure enough, 10% senior discount.    But, why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hadn\u2019t thought to put in my phone number so it didn\u2019t really know me – I\u2019m guessing they have my birthday stored somewhere, but there was no look up.\u00a0 And the discount appeared before<\/em> I used my credit card – so, they didn\u2019t even know my name by that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was on camera.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And an A.I. had taken one look at me and decided I was a senior citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human beings, I suppose, I can forgive for seeing the gray beard and wrinkles near my eyes and assuming I\u2019m older than I am.  Or maybe it was my jaunty hat that seemed dated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this really stung.\u00a0 I had been reduced to key biometric points and classified as\u2026senior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose it was bound to happen and there are worse things than getting 10% off for no reason.\u00a0 But, I don\u2019t feel as old as I am and it seems disrespectful to make assumptions.\u00a0 Or to program a machine to make assumptions, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, I have the supplies I need for a couple of projects and I saved $1.50<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which I suppose I can use to get my senior coffee at McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of years ago, I got an odd discount at KFC.\u00a0 I was placing my order with the clerk at the register when I noticed something briefly flash across the screen.\u00a0 When I got my receipt, I realized it was a senior discount.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have to show a Golden Buckeye or AARP card […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3216,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions\/3216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}