Signature accepted at the checkout

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When I go through the self-checkout at grocery stores, I always find it funny that a signature is required when I use a credit card. You have to write on the plastic screen that is usually all scratched up, the electronic pen doesn't work that well, and the result is a signature that is nothing like my real signature. (Many non-grocery stores have these electronic signatures, as well.)

But it always says, "Signature Accepted." As if there's actually a computer scouring a database to check my signature. I've just started signing with a large "M," and sometimes with an "X."

Always the same: signature accepted.

You can spend a hundred bucks, and this is the security feature. Then I'll go to another store and they want to see picture ID when I use a credit card to pay two bucks for a pack of pens.

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