Cashless/checkless/storeless.

The growing use of debit cards means fewer trips to the ATM for cash. The debit cards take the place of cash in an increasing number of stores. Bar-coded payment chits are taking the place of quarters and half-dollars in slot machines. That ATM's are already past their peak seems astounding to me since I find getting yen, pesos, or pounds from ATM's a wonder of the modern world.

Losing the security of returned checks is going to be hard for many shoppers. Bank charge cards originally provided charge slips like American Express and Diners Club. A copy of every signed charge slip was returned with statements. The practice was called Country Club Billing (members signed for their drinks all month, then faced the music in their monthly statement).

Consumers groaned when the banks started sending itemized statements without the sales slips. A few years after the banks streamlined their bills, American Express and Diners did too. Now everybody does it. Nobody provides copies of charge slips, which have morphed into scraps of paper torn off a strip. Consumers accepted the disappearance of charge slips, and today's payment experts believe that not sending back cancelled checks will reduce bank costs, push more people into using debit cards, and dramatically reduce the number of checks that consumers write and the number of consumers that write them.

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Not so fast! Some consumers really like to write checks and keep a running tab on what they write. Some of the consumers who like to write checks are young (e.g., 20-34). When I first started noticing young consumers writing checks, I was astounded because most of today's consumers don't bother with or keep their MAC receipts. When I asked check-writers why they were writing checks, they told me they liked having control and the float and the proof and record of what they spent. That's a lot to like and a lot to give up.

Consumers have been giving up things they like for the sake of speed and progress ever since automobiles started replacing horses.

* They balked a bit at giving up charge card receipts.

* They fought hard against scanning at the beginning because they didn't want to give up item pricing.

* They readily gave up stick shifts for automatics even though stick shifts gave drivers more control and automatics cost more to buy and drive.

* They gave up dial phones with only whimpers when the Bell Companies moved to push buttons.

* They readily gave up records for tapes, and tapes for CD's, or floppies for CD's, zips, and thumb storage.

* They miss the spill of coins from slot machine wins ("cashing out" now means getting a bar-coded slip of paper which must be redeemed at a cash center), but complaints are minimal.

* They are currently unhappy about losing access to people they can easily understand, as more and more of their technical and billing questions are being answered in accents they find hard to understand.

One of our panelists wrote: "I don't shop in stores anymore. I do much better with catalogs, phone, or the Internet." Going "storeless" is easier for this shopper than going "checkless" would be for others. With all the losses and changes they are experiencing, a lot of them are going to hold onto checks for as long as they can. In this slippery world, maybe they just want something to hold onto.

The Shopper Report[R] Copyright 2004, edited by Mona Doyle, is published 11 times a year by The Consumer Network, Inc., P.O. Box 42753, Philadelphia PA 19101. Phone (215) 235-2400 FAX: (215) 235-6967. The Consumer Network provides consulting and research services including focus groups, shopping partnerships, home visits, and mail and e-mail surveys.