“I would say … about 80% of the time it’s wrong.”

As in: Walking into a modern auto parts store regardless of which brand, staffed by illiterates with phones, you only have a 20% chance of walking out with what you actually came in for, and need.

It’s not me saying it. It’s a guy who visit these stores multiple times in an average week. A guy who not only has no reason to lie, but is often sponsored by such stores.

Even if he’s embellishing and only half-right, that goes a very long way toward explaining why this world generally, and commercial consumer transactions specifically, suck so bad in the brave new world.

I feel very sure that it’s not just about auto parts.

And … this doesn’t count situations where you get the right thing, but it’s defective, as recently happened to me with the power steering pump.

Or a million other bad variations on the same theme.

White people problems? Sure. Maybe.

But this is not the picnic of progress we grew up expecting, or anything close.

This, by which I mean daily life and trying to survive it, is hard. It’s not just you.