Originally Posted by
kebosabi
You forgot the most basic of all fallbacks: carbon copy imprints!
Still is being done to this date; when I ordered pizza at my hotel in Montreal few weeks ago, the delivery guy brought the old imprinter and did the ol' clap-clap of my card upon delivery!
I have absolutely no idea how that'll be done with cards that don't have raised numbers though.
Square is inexpensive enough (e.g. the reader is free if you have a smartphone) that there's no real excuse to need an imprinter in that kind of situation any more.
I believe the first credit cards didn't even work with imprinters though; the merchant had to call the number in to get it authorized. I wasn't anywhere near born yet then though so I don't know the details.