Please stop writing checks in stores

I work in retail. Running a cash register in a store is a frustrating experience, because as someone who has worked in this environment for the better part of two decades I can tell you, no retail store uses the top of the line computers to back their equipment. 

Things break down, freeze, and generally don't behave perfectly for more than a few transactions at a time. Basically we don't know how they are going to perform at any given time. So if we're standing there cocking an eyebrow at the screen, we're not idiots, we're just trying to use our psychic abilities to guess what the POS system is going to do this time. 

We also have to have the same conversations dozens of times in a day. And in the age of technology, we have to tell people how to use their own phones on the regular. WiFi is a complicated thing.

But for the love of all that is holy...please...from a cashier...stop using checks in stores. Please.
Checks are still able to be taken, but most places now use them like a debit card anyway and the money comes out immediately. Meaning...we use them like debit cards. No joke. The customer doesn't fill out the check at all in my store, and then I write VOID in black marker across the check before handing it back to the customer.

But unlike debit cards, we have multiple opportunities to screw up, there is a lot more fraud, and it takes FOREVER. Checks can't be starter checks, they have to run through the machine twice, they can't be business checks, they have to have both the address and the phone number on the check...so...yeah. I dislike checks.

And here's the thing...if I screw up and take a check that I shouldn't, because sometimes the machine will approve a bogus starter check, I HAVE TO PAY FOR IT! So not only do I have to worry about doing the procedure right, but I have the added anxiety of being out hundreds of dollars if I do it wrong.
Checks are the bane of my existence, and every other cashier's nightmare too, because it slows down the line. 

Please...I'm begging you. Use your debit card.

A woman yesterday took out her checkbook.

She took out a pen to note the amount.

AND THEN SHE PULLED HER DEBIT CARD OUT FROM BEHIND THE LEDGER!

I damn near hugged her. 

Be this woman. Use your debit card. Please.

​~Roxy