QUOTE
Our cities are easily disrupted. Our lives easily upset - modern tills....who can still do arithmetic to keep up with modern life?
Absolutely, and not just in the present and recently.
In c. 2000, in Glenelg, Adelaide, all the main shopping drag was paralysed for trade by a power cut. The only shops managing to operate had old fashioned credit card "drag across" embossing machines. These lucky ones included a sort of grocery/general store with queues out the door.
My son is a TESCO manager. One of his nightmare scenarios is loss of electricity late at night with worse-for-wear drinkers demanding service.