In some respects, and this is not meant to offend anybody, it is cultural. Americans treasure efficiency, perhaps not as much as some other cultures but more so than our cousins across the pond. Self service has not caught on there in the same manner as it has here (it is coming but slowly). As I've said, I want to get in and out as quickly as possible. I start muttering when on the checkout line (queue) when the person in front of me starts fumbling for cash to pay the bills sorting through all sorts of bank notes and then hunting in his or her pocket for the coins needed, finding he or she cannot make exact change, re-takes out his wallet for an additional bank note. Ouch. My turn. Cashier ring up purchases, swipe my card; if under $50 done...if more than $50 sign the signatuej pad. Every so often, a clerk asks to see the card to check the signature but rarely. Mutter under my breath when I have to go back into my wallet and pull out the card for the clerk to check the signature especially for small amounts. And really get upset when I am illegally asked for further ID to complete the transaction (we have discussed this here before; in the USA visa/mc regs do not prohibit merchants from requesting ID but prohibit them from failing to complete the transaction due to failure to produce said ID. I carry a coup of the visa regs in my wallet. While not meaning to open up the older discussion, providing ID does slightly increase the possibility of identity theft; credit card fraud does not annoy me. Identity theft dos and should but we went through that). As I understand it, this prohibition against refusing to complete a visa or mc transaction for failure to produce ID does not apply in other countries like Spain where passports are requested for non pin transactions. I still give cleks in the UK a had time when they request ID even though I may be on shaky ground but at least I can ague with them in a language similar to theirs but again we've been through that here and I don't wish to open old wounds. Chip and pin is supposed to alleviate that concern.