Just had a successful chip transaction at Wal-Mart in Luray, Virginia -- which is a fairly large tourist area.
I have a house there so shop there often. Tried inserting my Amex Chip card at times before and it just sits there and makes me look stupid. A few days ago I swiped as usual and cashier said the card was declined, shrugged and told me "It says ICC detected"
I said "Maybe I should insert it instead of swipe. She said "No, that doesn't work. Never has. Do you have another card?" I said no, and I swiped it again. This time it worked on a swipe. She shrugged again.
So today when I went in I just inserted it while the order was being scanned. The display immediately told me (in Black text on white background) not to remove the card. I did not. When done scanning, cashier (a different one) said "Oh, it says ICC inserted. Interesting." It prompted me to sign (with card still in slot), I did, and then it again said not to remove and finally said it was OK to remove. Cashier said it was the first time she saw that work.
So..... it was just turned on and Wal-Mart hasn't informed the cashiers about it. So if someone swipes they may think they got rejected. Worse, it looks like if you retry it will let it go through, defeating a safeguard against cloning mag stripes.
I didn't scan the receipt. It doesn't have anything on it that indicates it was a chip card.
Next time I am in there I'll take a pic of the "don't remove card" screen and post it.