Honestly that whole "mindset shift" thing you mentioned is spot on. I used to just toss stuff when it got a little worn out. But last month I sewed a patch onto my favorite jeans instead of buying new ones, and it felt really good. Now I look at my old dresser and think maybe I could just paint it. It's kinda cool to actually fix what you have.

Try telling a regular that their quick key copy now needs a digital birth certificate. What used to take seconds now feels like filling out tax forms for a single key. Management probably thinks this log prevents key theft or something, but it's just creating a new job called data entry for keys. I bet the computer time costs more than the key itself. Soon they'll want a fingerprint and a blood sample just to duplicate a house key. This is how you train customers to go to the hardware store instead.