>>He got the swipe card right but folks have not given up completely on handwritten checks yet either.
>
>What really amazes me is how *all* of those people somehow plan it to do their grocery shopping in such a way as to be ahead of me in the checkout line ...


There still is a place for cheques.

A lot of small tradesmen will not be able to take a card and people paying may not want to have that much cash to pay. Especially elderly people (like you :-)) . They may not want to have to carry around cash. My wife works as a therapist and is often paid by cheque and I know a lot of her clients wouldn't want to be walking around with nearly £100 cash in their pocket.