My body required food. I didn’t know what, but I was hungry. Just around the bend there’s a new Winn-Dixie that I needed to explore. So late last night I rushed to beat closing time. After browsing the food aisles for a few minutes I decided a steak and egg sandwich was the solution to my hunger.

At the front of the store there was only one cash register open. Without much thought process I began putting my food on the conveyor belt. It wasn’t moving though. That’s because the old hag in front of me was bitching about something. She looked back at me to say sorry. Damn I thought. How long is this going to take?

Apparently she came to Winn-Dixie specifically for some kind of discounted hamburger meat in the weekly ads. Unfortunately, this particularly priced meat had all been purchased. This woman couldn’t seem to wrap this concept around her head until the chick at the register called the butcher to the front to hear so for herself. Instead of accepting the fact that she came to the grocery at 9:30 PM and missed her opportunity, she complained and got her way with the manager discounting a different type of meat.

Now call me old fashion but this logic doesn’t work out in my mind. I don’t show up to Best Buy on Black Friday 20 minutes before close and expect to buy a 75% off discounted 54 inch 3D TV that has probably been sold out since 4:01AM. And I definitely don’t anticipate that since I missed my opportunity by sleeping in, that I deserve a 60 inch 3D TV for the same discounted price. Old people.

Speaking of Best Buy, I made a trip there today. When you job hunt in the classifieds, all you have is a mailing address for your cover letter and resume. Which means I need a printer. Somehow, I managed to make it through six years of engineering school without a printer(I suppose this was due to the fact that I was a Computer Science major and all of my professors preferred a digital copy). But I don’t desire paying for printouts at Kinkos every time I need a physical copy so I decided to go printer shopping. Hell, laptops are like 500 bucks nowadays, a printer should be pretty cheap.

I was closest to Target so that’s where the shopping began. Surprisingly they have quite the selection of printers. They were a little pricey for me; Printer companies show no consideration for Moore’s Law. If I’m going to pay for one of these bad boys I might as well get all the bells and whistles (copier, sd card slots, etc…). Once I finished browsing the aisle of printers I decided I wasn’t happy with the price and I should check out Walmart. After all, Walmart is Walmart for a reason. Everyday low prices.

Shocked is the only word that can describe my reaction to the selection of printers at Walmart. Nothing was on display. And very few options existed for purchasing. This is when I realized the slow and inevitable death of the printer was finally among us. When Walmart quits carrying a product, you know its necessity in society has met its end. We have no need for physical copies any more. PDF that shit and email it(Yes, I just used the word PDF as a verb, applaud me).

Upset with Walmart’s selection I drove to Best Buy. The selection was slightly better but not by much. Taking in all of my options, I elected to search for a SD card to USB  adapter instead to help save costs. My mind determined Target was my best option too. At this exact moment, I received a text from my roommate saying I practically had a job lined up, so my efforts to purchase a printer died.

Well, I was at Best Buy so I might as well look around while I’m here. Best Buy has changed. Maybe its just the two Florida locations I’ve been too, but the stores seem desolate. Much less merchandise than the Louisville counterpart and definitely much less merchandise than I remember the stores having just a few short years ago. Maybe Best Buy has fallen on hard times. It could also be due to the high demand of digital distribution. Whatever the case, I felt unsatisfied with my experience and left thinking Best Buy was on a roller coaster towards destruction.