Contactless Friction

Dateline: Austin, 9th September 2024.Paying for a drink in the coffee shop around the corner from where I live in England is quite straightforward. The terminal displays £3.50 or whatever and I tap my Lego on the terminal and walk off after the beep. It takes about, I don’t know, a second. It just doesn’t work like that in America.(Yes, I pay by Lego, of course. Here is a video.)ShareThe Payment ExperienceThe last time I bought something in America (yesterday), the payment experience was very different. The goods were $3.50 or whatever and the terminal displayed $3.50 plus sales tax and then I had to press the button to say that I didn’t want to give a tip and then I had to press a button to say that I didn’t want to donate to charity and then I had to look around the terminal try and figure out where the contactless bit of it was and then I tapped and waited for the beep and walked off.(Note that it’s not the principle of charity that bothers me, it’s the annoying experiences. In McDonald’s I always order using the self-service kiosks which are easy to use and quick and when you go to check out there they ask you if you want to round up and donate to charity and there I always press “yes” because it just doesn’t seem to interrupt the experience in the same way that selecting an amount does at a POS does, whereas at my…Contactless Friction