Whether or not you’re willing to admit it, the holiday shopping season is upon us. The malls are about to get even more crowded and I imagine that Black Friday in the States will be just as much of a gong show as it has been in the past. I have noticed some changes in how we go about buying things, though.
Aside from an increasingly large shift toward online shopping, I’ve found that more and more people don’t deal in cash anymore. When it comes to paper or plastic at time of payment, it’s much more of a question regarding what kind of plastic. And even then, the lines are getting blurrier than ever.
Don’t Sign Here
Take the whole chip-and-pin thing. I have a MasterCard. This is a credit card. In the past, I’d hand the credit card to the retailer, they’d swipe it, and get me to sign the sales slip. These days, it’s much more likely that my card gets swiped through the POS and inserted into the slot, only leaving me to enter my PIN. No signature needed. The confusion is when you show up at a place that might do both.
It’s a transition period. With some retailers, you hand the clerk your card and they do the swiping for you. With other retailers, the clerk will direct your attention to the sales terminal and you swipe your card yourself. With certain restaurants, you still go through the more traditional process of signing a physical sales slip. But that’s not where it ends.
Forget About Swiping Too
From what I can gather, mobile payment methods are starting to catch some traction here. They’ve had it for years in Japan and a few other places around the world, allowing people to just “tap” their cell phones on readers to pay for things, but we could be getting that around here too.
It’s like an even more convenient version of the Octopus Card in Hong Kong. Ironically, the whole point of chip-and-pin technology is to enhance security; wouldn’t a “tap” NFC (near field communication) system be less secure?
The Freedom of Online?
I’m guess I’m glad that, in my freelance writing business, I hardly ever handle payments in person. I get email money transfers, cheques in the mail, and PayPal payments. I don’t really have to worry about upgrading my point of sale terminals, because I really don’t have any. For me, the greater source of stress is sorting through our confusing sales tax system.
On a side note, speaking of the holiday shopping season, my Amazon Wish List is there for your active perusal. You know, just in case you happen to be feeling particularly generous toward a particular blogger in need of a new camera.
Sometimes I face the dilemma on whether I should use my card or cash. The cellphone tap is interesting. Though, we already have that with our cards, paynpass (or whatever it’s called).