I'm surprised they let you charge such a small amount. :D I have only been in the Chicago store, but I remember the Books Kinokuniya had a minimum charge (and a no returns policy). Now, the grocery store itself wasn't using EMV, was it? I got the impression that at Mitsuwa the food court/shops are all independent but simply lease space from Mitsuwa to be under the same roof.

The San Diego one is still using EMV-less terminals as of today. :(

Diners Club MC (US) prompted for PIN
 

I made a purchase today at Walmart with my US Diners Club MC in here in Silicon Valley and I had to enter my PIN. My purchase total was only $14. I didn't try to swipe the card, I just entered it. About a month ago, I tried my FIA Rewards Amex with EMV and it failed miserably. The chip read was acknowledged but the cashier said that I kept cancelling the transaction (which of course I didn't do). Tried it three times and gave up and used a traditional magnetic strip card.

As another point of comparison, I also tried a nearby Neighborhood Walmart which had a different Ingenico POS terminal. It didn't acknowledge the card insertion and this is still on mag stripe read.

Today I used a US Diners Club MasterCard at a Silicon Valley Walmart and it too prompted me for the PIN. My purchase amount was about the same $14.

I remember getting the contactless promo for CVS as well but I remember this being done by either Amex or Chase and not CVS. This was not a local thing as my NYC buddy got the same promo. He couldn't understand the big deal and why the discount for tapping instead of swiping. I still miss my ExpressPay keyfob sometimes.....

If this is the location next to the AMC Mercado, I can try with a chip-and-signature card next week.

That's the one I tried. At least you can still get a plastic bag for free there!

Some of those Ingenico's are not yet EMV enabled.

And wait... Walmart charges for bags in the US? Not here.

I think a plastic bag charge is ridiculous if charged by the shop, but I'm all in favour of a plastic bag tax.

Oh, Alex... Don't you realize that here in California they know what's good for you and have to take it one step further and ban plastic bags? :D It's somewhat annoying, especially for raw meats or other things that should be kept separately from other food. It's also inconvenient when you're traveling. Do I now need to bring reusable shopping bags everywhere I go? (For those not in the know, most municipalities here have banned stores - but not restaurants - from distributing plastic bags. Paper bags come with a nominal tax.)

For the record, the one time I did try to use reusable grocery bags at Walmart in Philadelphia the cashier started to scan and place items in plastic bags in the triangle bagging area. Before I knew it she was looking for the barcode on my own reusable shopping bags and ready to call for a price check. After I told her they were my own shopping bags and I wanted to use them instead of the gray plastic WM ones I got a bewildered look. :confused::confused::confused:

There's another Neighborhood Market on Stevens Creek Blvd in San Jose, so I can try using my EMV card at that one too and report back to this thread.

It's actually not a statewide thing, it's more of a municipal ordinance. It's quite stupid really. The City of LA banned plastic bags earlier this year, but I can just drive to the same supermarket chain in a different municipality (i.e. Culver City, City of Torrance, City of Gardena, City of El Segundo, City of Hawthorne, City of Santa Monica etc. etc.) and they still give me plastic bags.

"Driving over to a different city to do your grocery shopping" isn't that of a big deal in LA. All the cities are so close together (there's 88 municipalities in LA County!), it's practically a difference between shopping on one side of the road that's in the City of LA or shopping on another side of the road which is a totally different city! :D

Last night my US Diners Club MC, at an Orange County CA Wal-Mart, prompted me for a PIN on a $1.05 purchase.

But some other cards may prompt for a PIN above, say, $10, but not below $10 (at Wal-Mart stores that have EMV enabled).

When's the last time you did it in Santa Monica? :confused: I thought Santa Monica banned them a bit before Los Angeles?

http://www.smgov.net/Departments/OSE...Questions.aspx

Yes, I know it's a municipal ordinance (or county in some cases). I was saying out here the governments try to engineer social policy, whether it's at the municipal, county, or state level. It's still stupid. (Back on topic before I get banished to OMNI/PR... :D)

Come to think of it, the last time I shopped in Santa Monica was prior to 2011. I'm actually surprised they fell to the stupid plastic ban too, earlier than City of LA.

Oh boy, I can rant on about all the stupid nanny state policies here in CA all day long! Yes, it's best for OMNI/PR.

OK, let's get back on topic. Type of bags is, and nanny policies, off topic. Take those discussions to OMNI. Thanks.