Elderly Man 2 minutes later: Spends 10 minutes writing a check
Places still accept cheques?
No but some accept checks.
Yep, just gotta check with them first.
Cheques out
I am going to send you all to the cheque republic if you don’t stop.
In the US they’re weirdly still popular. And not for big one-off purchases either, normal stores and restaurants take them. It’s like going back in time three or four decades.
Is this still a thing? I worked at a grocery store about 10 years ago, and towards the end of my tenure, they stopped taking checks. I’d imagine other chains did too. I haven’t seen anyone write one while I’ve been in a checkout line in forever.
I worked at AutoZone 7 years ago, we had a scanner thing that’d just read the check numbers on the bottom and run it like a debit card without a pin.
I’d tell people to not fill out the check, cause it doesn’t matter at all, it didn’t read it, and I give the check right back anyway, it could even be used again if the dorks would stop filling them out for no reason.
Even after all my telling them before and while they filled them out, they’d be in such disbelief when I returned their check after 3 seconds. Some would even be angry for them wasting time filling it out when it didn’t even matter. Like guy I told you multiple times, how could anyone get upset at me for that.
In the UK they died with the cheque guarantee card.
I had to write software to print cheques on a slip printer about 20 years back. Had nobody ask for them since. I took that function away by accident a few years ago and nobody complained. They still make the printers, but they don’t get used for cheques. More for prescriptions and other things that just need a small slip of paper that can’t be trivially copied by a crackhead.
I worked at an Albertsons a couple years back for a summer and we still took checks. And there were definitely people who used them, although more often I think it was people who were using some kind of unemployment or other social programs. But yeah whenever it wasn’t a check like that it was an older person who would write the check out once they saw the total.
Last time I was in the US, I was at a convenience store with a quick checkout - max 5 items. Then I saw that a couple was paying by check. Writing the check scanning it and verifying etc. took about 10 times as long as scanning the wares. Is this still a normal interaction?
It’s normal for a check transaction to take that long; it’s hasn’t been normal for people to be paying by check since the late 2000’s, if not sooner.
Meanwhile, younger folks audibly exhale when you take the extra 10 seconds to put your cash change back in your wallet.
Can’t win em all.
Shit, I still see them pull out checkbooks.
It honestly surprises me that many merchants still accept checks, given that they won’t verify immediately.
I think if you look old and world weary enough they probably figured that you don’t know how to bounce them.
They do verify immediately in many places. The cash register scans the check, extracts the bank routing and account numbers, and does an EFT transaction on the spot.
No shit? TIL.
Yeah. Then they hand the paper check back to you. (I haven’t written a check, or seen anyone write a check, at a store in many years, but that’s how it was working the last time I did see it.)
a check may gain some time for those who may need it. Transaction is not instantaneous. It may take a week or longer.
use cash. don’t leave traces.
If you need time that’s what a credit card is for. If you don’t have financial responsibility then that is a problem though.
credit card is instantaneous and you pay extra for using credit. Checks add friction to procedure
p.s. i use neither
Don’t you guys have direct debit cards yet?
Depends on where you are for “paying extra”. Grocery stores in the US around me don’t charge differently for credit/debit/check/cash. Restaurants are starting to charge credit card fees to people but have a cash/debit “discount” which I’m actively ensuring I use. Probably going to hit up the card companies and explain that the change in cost means their cards are worth less now and I’ll just never use them.
The middle aged people tap their card on the other lane and shake their heads at both parties.
Because you do that on your own time, not at the cashier. Do it while you’re walking out.
I have two hands. One is occupied by my wallet that I just took the cash out of. The other is occupied by the change that was just handed back to me. Which hand am I supposed to push the cart or carry my stuff with? Just be patient for a moment.
I put my wallet away, grab my stuff with one hand, then take the change with the other hand & stuff it into a pocket. Then I sort my stuff when I get in my car.
stuff it into a pocket
Ok but what are women supposed to do
Give the change to the man behind her if it’s 30% or more of her total.
Purse
I’m usually throwing it into a hoodie pocket.
You could put your wallet away while the cashier is putting your cash in the drawer and getting your change out. However, if you’re at one of the longer lines that has the conveyor belt it’s unlikely you’d be holding up anyone behind you because they’re not likely to be ready to check out in the short period of time it would take to put your change away, and it’s not like putting your change away is going to stop the cashier from starting to scan the next person’s items.
And that’s not even with a kid. Try pushing a trolley, holding a kid, and putting your change away. I tried an palm scanner recently at the grocery but felt like OP as I scanned it several times and it never was able to recognize my palm as a palm.
Nah, I’ll do it right when the cashier hands it back to me at the check stand before I grab all of my stuff and then walk out so I’m not fumbling shit all over the walkway and impeding even more people. 10 seconds isn’t going to kill you.
Now he knows how it feels. Love just trying to get a donut on my way to work and some old lady has 2 months worth of groceries at 6am and wants to pay with a check. And there’s one lane open.
Ronald Reagan? The actor? Ha! Then who’s vice-president, Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady?
And Jack Benny is Secretary of the Treasury!
That old timer had been waiting decades to use that line.
Just pay with a card fucko
That requires me to carry a wallet.
Do what I do-
I used to but I didn’t like the thickness.
I can see that. That’s not the specific case I have, but it isn’t slim. On the other hand, it works great as a stand.
Yeah so in the civilized world we prefer to carry our health card and a piece of ID anyway, but if you live in the States the first one doesn’t exist and… Well… The second one doesn’t really exist either…
But you know, a bank card takes way less space than a cellphone in your pockets, just saying.
“Health card”? Do you mean like, organ donor card?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Health_insurance_cards
Take your pick, it exists all over the world
Lol, in my country the hospital just, y’know, heals you.
You have doctors that never have the need to look up your medical history?
It does the same over here but won’t have any way to know who to contact if they can’t identify you.
My phone has my medical information and identity for first responders.
Your phone that’s locked? Super practical for first responders! Especially if you get hit by a car and your phone is broken!
Also, I don’t know of a single place where a picture of an ID is considered a valid piece of ID. If I got caught driving with just a picture of my driver’s license the police would ask me to call someone to pick up my car for me or have it towed and I would get a ticket for driving without a license.
Tell me you don’t know how the medical ID/emergency contacts feature works without telling me you don’t know how it works.
How well does that work if your phone gets broken in an accident?
It’s not a picture of an ID. It’s accessible even with the phone is locked. Also, some states allow digital ID now.
Crash happens, phone breaks, what now?
Crash happens, id card burns down, what now?
Future boy.
I’m no future boy.
'Cause I think I’m here to stay.
What’s the future for.
If I don’t get more than today?
I’m no future boy.Future boyb had 4 years left, before he becomes elderly man
If you had a basket before you got to checkout, don’t dispose of it at the end of the line, BECAUSE YOU OBVIOUSLY WILL NEED IT WHEN WALKING OUT YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER! Stop wasting my time trying to juggle 10 items without a basket YOU FUCKING MORON!
(I’m fine.)
Are people not taking rucksacks to the shop yet? I hardly thought myself a genius when I worked it out at least ten years ago.
Two reasons against this:
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Usually people visit shops by car, without a backpack – at least where I live.
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Putting stuff in your backpack may require some more careful planning than just throwing it back into the basket temporarily, before you pack your backpack for real at the packing table. People do do that, blocking the end of the checkout. If the cashier doesn’t wait, you need to be careful not to have your items mixed up with the previous customer’s.
Usually people visit shops by car, without a backpack
There’s plenty of room in your car for canvas bags. The ones I have (Chico Bags) roll up into a little ball that fits in your hand.
Well maybe I am a genius then, because putting the hard stuff at the bottom of the bag and the soft stuff at the top is childsplay. Then if something’s too fragile for a rucksack and you have got there by car, you can just handball it. Easy peasy.
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Plenty of people live in places in the U.S. where they don’t let you carry backpacks around in stores.
That’s mad!
