October 21, 2007 - Receipt #3 - Buying a New Cell Phone

October 21, 2007 - Receipt #3 - Buying a New Cell Phone

Chronicling our four-day vacation in Manhattan through the receipts we’ve accumulated during our stay, I’ve come to the third, the purchase of a cell phone. I had left my own at home in San Jose as had IM—she usually doesn’t bring her phone relying on me to have mine. I had been toying with dumping Sprint for some time, largely because their network was not GSM and when I travel abroad GSM is the network I usually encounter. I was determined to end my several-years relationship with Sprint and now was the opportune time since I needed a new phone and the cost of getting one was to sign on with a new provider.

After we left the Buckingham, still full from the late night hamburger feast, the third purchase we made in Manhattan was two new Nokia GSM phones from the AT&T Store at 1330 Avenue of the Americas, between 53rd and 54th streets. The store is on the ground floor of the tall office building at 1330 near the corner of 53rd. The store was filled with an assortment of wireless handset, packaged in clear plastic containers containing details about each phone, features such as digital camera, MP3 player, etc. The other patrons of the store—a man and a woman, not together—were decidedly younger than IM and me, and their queries ran more to the features than the function IM and I were after. The young woman wanted help downloading ringtones. The young man wanted a new phone and was engaging the sales clerk in earnest conversation about the features of the various phones he could purchase.

I have to ask the question why do we need a portable phone besides the obvious reasons of being able to ring anyone in the world at will as long as you have their number. The question is better stated as why do we spend time calling one another to discuss the minutiae of everyday life. Is it because we have all become alienated by a world filled with so many people that we’ve become lost in the sea of humanity that surrounds us on roadways and especially the sidewalks and street corners of Manhattan. Lost and lonely amid teaming crowds of people, you can call someone you know and hear a familiar voice comfort you and ease the anxiety impressed upon you by the modern world.

The sales clerks were dressed in corporate wear, dark Docker slacks and solid blue and brown pressed shirts bearing the AT&T logo. The dark haired sales clerk helping IM and me was a native to the greater New York area, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, New Jersey—one of those. My ear is not discriminating enough to place him based on his speech. The second light haired sales clerk behind the counter was East European, which became obvious when a third customer—the other two having been helped and sent on their way while IM and I waited for our phones to be activated—an attractive light haired young woman entered the store and began conversing in a language that sounded East European, the origin of which I haven’t a clue, and the second sales clerk responded in kind, obviously the young woman was a friend or co-worker on a busman’s holiday. When our sales clerk rang us up, the register receipt said 12:25 PM. We had entered the store a few minutes before noon, a half hour transaction, which cost us nothing up front but committed us to two years of AT&T wireless phone service. Why do we need cell phones?

As IM and I left the store and resumed our walk down 6th Avenue, I could see every third or fourth pedestrian approaching us talking earnestly into their wireless handset and the conversation were the banality of everyday life. “I’m running a few minutes late…”; “Can we make it a hour earlier…”; “Did you get the kids to school on time?”; “Remember to pick up the laundry…”; “We have to stop seeing each other…” In a multitasking world why waste time walking when you can walk and talk at the same time. Our two phones were stuck away in pockets though both were on in case any of our friends and family wanted to get in touch. No one called. We weren’t on anyone’s must call list. And being together we didn’t feel alienated in the imposing world surrounding us.