When a cluttered counter obstructed cashless payments

Singapore

LAST week, I picked up a bottle of hair conditioner and some mouthwash at a pharmacy. As I waited in line at the cashier, I was pondering the different ways that I could pay for my items - which would cost less than S$10. With only a S$100 note in my wallet and not wanting to deal with change, I decided to go with Apple Pay.

It had always been a simple and elegant solution. All I had to do was to hold my iPhone near a card terminal, rest my thumb on the home button and wait a second for it to confirm my fingerprint and purchase. There was no need to launch Wallet (the app that powers Apple Pay and holds all my debit and credit cards) on my iPhone, or take out my physical wallet at all.