Remember when the world ran on cash?
Yeah. Maybe I'm just so old that seems normal to me. Paying for purchases with paper money and coins. I'm not sure it can still be done today. Except in the gas station chicken store. And even they have a lot of credit card transactions.
Today I was in Save A Lot. They used to only take cash. Uh huh. It's true. Or perhaps a check. So I always made sure to have enough with me, and to stick to my list. Not as easy as it may sound when you are carting two young 'uns with you through the store. Young 'uns who LOVE sugary cereal, and haven't learned about brand names yet.
Anyhoo...today in Save A Lot, the lady in front of me was having trouble. And I don't just mean with her whiny brat of a daughter who screamed throughout the store because she wanted to push her baby brother around in the cart BY HERSELF. I purposefully took a detour when I came up behind them at the register. I figured I could use something else. Or score a box that was almost empty from the freezer case. Boxes are hard to come by on some days. Especially on weekends, or the end and beginning of the month, due to so many movers.
When I came back with my box borrowed from a single bag of frozen fish fillets, another register was open. And BOTH customers were having trouble. I'm not sure what kind of card the Whiny Girl Mom was trying to use. But the older lady at the middle register was trying to use a social security card. Although not her own.
I only got dragged into the discussion because the black-haired checker as old as Methuselah's great grandpappy told me she would take me on register three, and then asked if I knew anything about bank cards. Because those folks were having trouble. I said all I knew was that they charged a fee if you didn't use the ATM at your bank. That's because they suggested to the customers that they could hold their items while they went to get cash. The convenience store across the road has an ATM. And the bank past the stoplight. But they didn't want the extra charges. Especially that older lady, who said she was buying stuff for an elderly lady, and didn't want her to have to spend extra.
I said, "Well, we'll see if MY debit card works. I have cash with me, just in case." And mine DID work. But Coal Hair said they had been having trouble all day. I thought it might be due to the 1st of the month. Until she yelled
"Hers works! It's one of the OLD cards. Without a chip."
Uh huh. Mrs. Hillbilly Mom is SO old that even Methuselah's forebears dare to call her bank card old.
I suppose they don't know you can override the chip and still use the magnetic strip. Cash is king here. I hate it when someone makes a $1 purchase and uses a debit card! They must have just started using the chip device. I have had mine since last year and from time to time, it refuses to process the transaction. When that happens, all you have to do is "clear" it and it will ask if you want to override the chip. If you answer yes, it will work fine.
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteThey might have figured that out. Because today, I heard that noise on the next lane, and the checker asked if the card had a chip, and there was no flurry of activity to figure out what to do.