Mega Malls & Lonely Robots

Form RA-12, Continuity of Courtesy Log, Q3 2003. The cover sheet for the surveyor’s first walk through the complex is intact at the corners and abraded across the center, as if someone had repeatedly placed a hand on the page in the same position. The date of the last customer is recorded as not established. The field for last greeting issued by site systems is blank, which is interpreted in two ways during filing: either no greeting was issued during the reporting period, or the greeting was issued continuously and the form’s hourly precision was inadequate.

The surveyor’s note, in pencil, at the bottom of the cover sheet: Walked the corridor. Was escorted.

The lighting is on a slow cycle. Twelve seconds at full brightness in the main hall, then eight at the corridor mouth, then four somewhere in the food court. The surveyor walks at an unhurried pace and is accompanied. The escort is not a person. A small wheeled unit, height of an end table, holds a service distance of roughly four feet and matches the surveyor’s speed without comment. It does not offer directions. It does not ask whether help is needed. It has been doing this for hours before the surveyor arrived and will do it for hours after the surveyor leaves.

In the surveyor’s notes: Escort behavior intact. No purchase intent recorded. The note is correct in both directions.

The service desk is staffed by two units. One is positioned to receive customers. The other is positioned to receive the mall. Over the course of the surveyor’s observation period, the second unit issues four greetings to the southwest corridor, three queries about the condition of the skylight, and one apology for an unspecified delay. None of these are responded to. None of them appear to be waiting for a response.

The first unit, when approached, asks how it can help. The surveyor records the time and the phrasing and continues.