Monday, December 31, 2018

Will You Take A Check?

      As technology becomes more advanced, I’m feeling like the proverbial dinosaur, totally out of place.  Around Christmas, I feel this more intensely while shopping.  It’s like the traditional ways of paying for things when I was a kid—check and cash—are slowly becoming outdated.  So many young folks pay for things somehow with their smartphones or just by using their debit card.

      I have neither.

      When my wife and I tried to use a check recently at our favorite local grocery store, a confab of about three employees took place.  It appeared that two of the workers were new, so the more senior worker was taking this opportunity to teach them how to handle a person who wants to pay by check.  I felt as if we were paying in drachmas or something. 

      Never mind that they ran the check through their register, then handed it back to us.  Is that then our canceled check?  So how is that check information stored?  Can the Chinese or Russians hack your electronic database and write their own check against our account?  Scary financial times we live in.

     Then we encountered another first when we tried the express check-out line at Target.  After using self-service to ring up our order, we discovered there was no way to pay cash.  We had to flag down a clerk somewhere to help.  Is this the wave of the future?  “Sorry.  Your cash is no good here.”

     “Will you take a check?”

      “A what???”

      At our local theatre in town, they no longer employ ticket-takers nor ticket-sellers at the shows we attend.  What most people do is purchase their tickets, including their assigned seats, on-line at home or on one of those smartphones.  Then when they go to the theatre, they’re instructed to go directly to their seats.  I guess this theatre is depending on our honesty, right?

      My son sometimes orders coffee and sandwiches from Panera on-line from home.  He pays for it on-line (somehow), then when he goes to the Panera’s, the order is bagged and ready, waiting on a rack.  Again, he didn’t have to check with any staff.  He just took the order and walked out.  I guess Panera too is depending on our honesty.

      So I can be standing in a long line at Panera’s, waiting for a clerk to take my money and order, only to be passed over while the kitchen staff prepares an order they received over the internet.    Even my twenty-something nephew complained over this new world ordering system.

       He stood in a long line at Starbucks (shorter lines are one reason my wife and I prefer Tim Horton’s) waiting to just order his latte.  People would come into Starbucks, pass by my nephew right to the pick-up counter, tell them their name and they would be served their own latte before my nephew could even see the clerk past the people ahead of him in line.

      Apparently, Starbucks has an ap (app?) that allows you to order your coffee drink on-line, just the way you like it, pay for it, then let Starbucks know what time you will be in to pick it up.  Thus, avoiding long lines of dinosaurs.  Like myself.

4 Comments:

Blogger Lee said...

Hey, Dave! See! Your seven year old grandson is right after all...everything is free!!! :)

In the very near future, sooner than we think, we will be living in a cash-less society...and definitely a cheque-less (Aussie spelling) society. I've not used or seen a cheque in years.

I don't use credit cards...but I do use a debit card. And I often online shop, but only if the vendor uses PayPal.

All the very best to you and your family for 2019, Dave...take good care...and remember....the best things in life are free!! :)

2:56 PM  
Blogger CAROLDEE said...

Hi again and Happy 2019.. I so agree. Do not give anyone a 2$ bill they will FREAK out..Almost called the cops on me.. HA I do know the fast food places like McD and Wendy will still take cash, but YES it is getting very difficult to NOT use your debit card and soon the CASH situation will be so scary. Kids already have no IDEA what a check book is, it's like the VCR, Tape player and the REAL PHONE gone to another dimension..

9:42 AM  
Blogger Big Dave T said...

LEE--I think I have a PayPal account. I might have used it once over five years ago to book a room in Ireland. That was the only reason I activated it. Wonder if it's drifting about in cyberspace still. I'm surprised you don't have a credit card though. Can't travel without one for sure.

CARINE--Too funny about the $2 bill and I do have one. Maybe I'll surprise the folks at Tim Horton's one of these days. I also have a VCR, tape player and a real phone too. And use them all fairly regularly (well not the tape player too much).

10:33 AM  
Blogger Carine-what's cooking? said...

I too am a total dinosaur Dave. Steve has embraced several of the "new" technologies: Alexa (who is not necessary and sometimes listens about as well as our Chihuahuas), the use of paying w/ his phone (which, again, doesn't work every time) and yes, when we go to the movies-he shows them our tix on his phone (which, given where we live, isn't always easy to bring up to be seen!).
And I still hate DirectTVNow. It isn't really reliable since it's connected to our internet, which, again, works when it feels like it out here in the outskirts of the outskirts.

11:52 AM  

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