Above the Fold: Supply Chain Logistics News (July 24, 2020)

By Adrian Gonzalez

When was the last time you tried driving somewhere new without using a navigation app on your smartphone or car?

My daughter’s smartphone gave up its ghost on Tuesday, so the next day she had to rely on printed directions to get from the house where the girls she babysits live to a nearby pool.

She and the girls never made it to the pool.

Instead, my daughter spent almost two hours in the car, driving around the greater Boston area, with no idea where she was or where she was going. She stopped multiple times to ask for directions, and the police even escorted her to the freeway at one point, but she still couldn’t find her way to the pool or back to the house (the fact that many Boston streets lack street signs didn’t help).

A left turn here, a U-turn there, and she ultimately made it back to the house. The girls didn’t mind that they never made it to the pool; in fact, they wanted my daughter to keep driving past the house in hopes of getting lost again.

It was an emotionally draining day for my daughter, but the first thing she did when she got back home was to drive to the Apple store and buy a new phone.

Maybe she should have bought a map and compass instead.