Meet Shorty.

Corner Bakery Hires New Coworker

By the Gazette Staff

MAIN STREET — The corner bakery opened Tuesday with a new face behind the counter: a small green ticket named Shorty, who answers every customer text before the ovens are warm. The owner said the new hire has already updated the menu, posted the weekend special and moved two bookings without being asked twice.

“He never clocks out,” she said, “and he never forgets to write back.” Customers who once waited until morning for a reply now hear back within moments, day or night, and the shop has stopped losing orders to the missed call.

Neighbors say the change is plain to see. The line at the register moves faster, the chalkboard is always right, and the phone, long the loudest thing in the building, has gone quiet.

AI Agents Arrive on Main Street. Is Your Shop Ready?

Special to the Gazette

Personal assistants from the largest technology companies are now ordering lunch, booking haircuts and hunting for a plumber on behalf of their owners. Most small businesses, whose websites and social pages were built for people, are invisible to them.

The Shortlist gives each shop a page these agents can read, so a request for a Saturday plumber can end with a booked appointment instead of a shrug. Everyone, the company says, is going to have an agent, much as everyone has an email address.

Shop owners who wish to be found are advised to claim their page without delay. Those who do not may find that the customers have already gone looking elsewhere.

The Money Stays With the Shop

Shortlist Pass works with Square and Stripe, so customers order and pay the way they always have. The company says it never touches the money, a point it has stressed in every conversation with the owners it serves.

Owners who use neither may keep whatever they use now and add Shorty alongside it. “A sale is a sale,” said one.

Barber Chairs Full for Third Straight Week

By Our Local Correspondent

The calendar at the barbershop on Elm filled itself this week, as it has for three weeks running. Appointments are booked, moved and confirmed by text, and the only thing left for the barber to do is cut hair.

“I used to answer the phone with one hand,” he said. “Now I use both on the clippers.”

HOA Residents Get a Say

Homeowner associations will receive their own Shorty at no charge, the company announced, so that the community controls how it talks to its own residents. He will answer questions about the rules, take a bingo RSVP and carry word of the block party to every door.

Classifieds

WANTED — One reliable coworker. Must work weekends and holidays. Apply to Shorty.

LOST — One missed call, last seen Tuesday. If found, Shorty has already returned it.

FOR SALE — Handwritten signs, gently used. Owner has gone digital.

Food Truck Fans Told Where to Find Lunch

By the Gazette Staff

Hungry crowds no longer have to guess where the truck is parked. Shorty posts each stop, answers the question of the day and takes the order before the window opens, so that the line, when it forms, is a happy one.

“We sold out by one o’clock,” the cook said. “Nobody called. Everybody just knew.”

Owners Say Evenings Are Their Own Again

Shop owners report that the hours after closing, once spent at the counter with a phone and a pencil, now belong to them. Newsletters go out on schedule, loyalty rewards are tallied without a ledger and the week is summed up in a single line on request.

A florist on Maple said she had attended her daughter’s recital for the first time in two years. “Shorty took the calls,” she said.

Notices

The Main Street Merchants will meet Thursday. Refreshments will be served. Questions may be sent to Shorty, who is expected to answer.

Lost and found: one umbrella, one loyalty card, one very patient dog. Inquire at the bakery.

New Page for Every Shop on the Block

Every business that claims a free page receives a Shorty of its own, limited at first to answering questions about what it sells. Those who wish to take orders, bookings and reports may upgrade at any time.

The company notes that claiming a page takes only a few minutes and no special skill beyond knowing one’s own business.

Weather

Fair skies over the city, a gentle breeze, and not a customer left on read.