I would feel more comfortable about the convenience of shopping with a debit card if they structured the experience a bit differently.
There are almost as many different kinds of machines as there are merchants. So you never really know if this piece of plastic you are typing your PIN into is legitimate, or whether your are giving organized crime the keys they need to access your bank account and suck you dry. I have seen this on TV, so it must be possible.
The location of the OK button and which button to push to designate if the withdrawal is from your chequing or your savings account are always changing.
And, of course, life might be so much sweeter if there was another option for tapping someone else’s account that came up on the screen too.
You have no control over what happens to your PIN number after you input it into the ATM or machine at the grocery store checkout.
Hopefully no one hacks the store and gets your credit or debit card info.
But the part of the whole transaction that gives me the willies is right at the beginning of the process where the machine says, “Please insert or swipe your card.” Considering they are talking about MY money here, I’d feel a lot better about the whole thing if they would use a different word than “swipe”.
***
Terry Keough from the Rock Creek Community Medical Society sent me an email after last week’s paper hit the streets. I had repeated the same mistake I make every year when it comes to the Rock Creek Canada Day party. Last week in an article entitled “Lots to do Canada Day” I had written that “the Kettle River Lions will provide lunch.”
That’s not quite correct. Yes, the Kettle River Lions were there again this year with their fancy industrial-sized grill and yes, they did hand out hamburgers and hot dogs to all comers—and for that I am very grateful.
The rest of the story is that the Rock Creek Community Medical Society supplies the burgers and buns and such. The Lions provide the proficiency on the barbeque.
Terry got back at me though. The line-up to get one of those burgers was quite long for the better part of an hour on Canada Day. I’d been standing in it for about 10 or 15 minutes— and had made it half way across the parking lot.
That’s when Terry decided to pick up the microphone and start making a speech. So I had to abandon my place in line and go get the scoop. When I left the line, George Anschetz, who was just in front of me, said he’d save me a place.
That didn’t work too well. Terry was longwinded and George was already half-way between the bun-dressing station and the salads. If I’d tried to reclaim my spot in line an ugly food fight might have broken out and there was way too much ammo close at hand.
Instead I found a place at the tail end again.
But when George walked by with his dinner I tried to claim it from him— he’d offered to save me a place—so I tried to get him to buy into the option where he’d offered to save me a plate. He didn’t buy it.
***
It was very nice seeing people from Greenwood and Midway mixing in at the Rock Creek Canada Day festivities; and the same goes the other way around for the fireworks in Greenwood at dusk. It almost qualifies as cultural exchange tourism.