I realized just the other day how ubiquitous a force in our lives debit cards have become.
My debit card of several years finally gave up and quit working two weeks ago. My card would work in some stores, but not in others. I knew then it was time to get to the bank and get a new card before my old one ceased to function at a really important time.
Getting a new card made me realize how attached I am to debit transactions. Debit cards are everywhere now. They're in grocery stores, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, oil change centres, our newspaper office, the Meaford Hall box office and even the eye doctor.
On the Sunday of this past long weekend I began to wonder how our society ever functioned in the past without debit cards.
What did people do when we didn't have such easy access to cash?
I can remember a time when debit (or bank cards as I called them at first) cards were a means of getting cash from a machine and that was it. Shortly after getting this job at The Express 12 years ago I realized my good old college wardrobe of faded jeans and hockey jerseys wasn't going to cut it in a professional environment. This job was never going to be a jacket and tie deal, but I knew I needed something less casual than I was used to wearing to college classes.
After work one night I ventured off to an Owen Sound department store to pick out a selection of dressy (maybe less slobbish would be a better description of my choices), yet functional items that I could wear to work. I remember shopping in the store for about an hour pricing out items and then going out into the mall to find a bank machine and withdrawing enough cash to pay for the clothes I was buying. At the time this particular store didn't have debit machines to pay for items.
Even if they had the machines, I probably would have gone and withdrawn cash anyway. Simply put, that was how I paid for stuff back then.
If I told a 16-year-old that's how we used to shop they would probably stare at me dumbfounded.
Imagine telling them that on weekends stores weren't open on Sundays and definitely not Mondays of a long weekend. Heck, I can remember when Zellers staying open to 9 p.m. was a major deal and there would be lineups to get in.
Now it's all: swipe and pay. It's another form of instant gratification. People get what they want right now. We live in a society of immediate needs. People want the things they want right now. The day of the week doesn't matter and in larger areas the hour of the day is just a minor detail as well.
I wonder if our lives have really improved with easy access to our money. I'm constantly reading stories in the news about our "culture of debt." Many people think that our strong economy over the past decade was built on a pile of debt.
People have easy access to lower interest lines of credit and high limit credit cards. Monthly payments used to be the sole domain of cars and mortgages. Now appliances, televisions, bedroom sets are purchased on payment plans. I've read countless economic forecasts that predict the good times will end once consumers detect a weakened economy and stop financing their lifestyles through debt.
Our easy access to our money makes it easy for us to believe there is a never-ending supply of it. I think of my own habits and realize that this is probably the case. I can't count the number of times a trip to the store has led to me spending just a little more, not because I need to, but because I can.
My card comes out and I'm swiping away.
