Credit card readers at checkout lines should have games!
Fast-food restaurants, drugstores, and supermarkets often have miniature computer screens next to each register for customers to swipe their credit cards and enter their PINs.
Only a few checkout lines are ever open at a time, so most of these readers are not in use. Why not imbue these mini computers with games?
While waiting for your groceries to be bagged or your order to be made, play a quick game of Tetris or Hangman. Your friends can use the card readers at other, inactive registers while you finish waiting in line.
Simply swipe any valid credit or debit card to activate the game module. Don't stand there bored while the cashier is working on your cart full of groceries; play a game!
A small charge may be implemented for this privilege; it's simply billed to your card on a per minute basis. (Games could be available for free if you're actually buying something.)-- phundug, May 08 2007 So, when they want to open up checkout number 4, they have to interrupt your game of Tetris?-- pertinax, May 08 2007 As the groceries are scanned they appear on the console in the form of space invaders, as you shoot them with the animated soap dispenser within the allocated time allowed, you may be granted a overall discount.-- skinflaps, May 08 2007 How about spending the time they are scanning your items with the lengthy process of pulling your card out of your pocket so I don't have to wait any longer to pay for my beer and ammunition than absolutely necessary? Ok, Chester?-- Galbinus_Caeli, May 08 2007 I like your subtitle, but this just doesn't feel right. It's in the wrong place. The people who need entertainment the most are the ones waiting in line behind someone who's using the cash register, and they're moving, so any sort of video game would have to be hand-held, at which point this turns into "give free PSPs to shoppers", a me-too.
Maybe some kind of betting game on the total price of groceries of the person in line in front of you?-- jutta, May 08 2007 Doesn't everyone already have time-filling games in their pocket, on a cell phone or PDA? Besides, it's a time honored tradition to read th tabloid headlines while waiting at the grocery store! How else can one keep abreast of the latest on Katie Holmes' pitiful life with tom?-- mimz, May 09 2007 I want the people at the checkout line to get the hell out of my way. If they're playing Tetris, then by golly they're not going to make to the next level before I go all Donkey Kong on them.
I'm not saying I'm impatient. I am actually very patient in most circumstances. But I have precious little tolerance for inconsiderate assholishness and will punish same with extreme prejudice.
Sorry, bone. Interesting confluence of computer apps, though.-- elhigh, May 10 2007 Ok fine then, but I will still cry when I see the idle waste of computer technology at the closed checkout lines-- phundug, May 10 2007 SETI@home depot?-- jutta, May 10 2007 random, halfbakery