The little bits are crawling ahead

This morning I realized that I need new contacts. Not because I need a new prescription or anything, but because I am on my last pair.

Logged in to the store's webpage, and realized that I have two prescriptions, and last time my vision changed, they changed only one of them and forgot the other.

(The two prescriptions are, in principle, the same prescription for two different brands of contacts. I have no idea why I need two, and who decides that I can only buy these two, and not the others. The two are of the same type, and when I come there for a new prescription, they don't test both of them.)

I needed to buy the contact fluid anyway, so I came by the store, bought it, and also told the woman there to update my other prescription. She put the new values in the computer, and told me that it will take a week to get updated.

This is so mysterious. Why does it take a week? Why, for that matter, did the address change in one frequent flyer program take 6 weeks? Are the bits crawling so slowly in their network?