Hacker News Reader

Comment by EZ-E | Hacker News Reader

Can confirm, in most supermarket, paying take literally one second. You pull out your phone and show your Alipay/WeChat QR code, the cashier scans it and 1 second later it's done.

People paying in cash is a small minority

Speeding up lines, they also can have more clients for less cashiers

In France, most people pay with a bank card, the rest with cash. The process is longer and less user friendly

View on HN

Yeah but you do have to wait for the kid in front of you to finish chatting to his friends before switching to the payment part of wechat

You’d have to wait even if they paid with cash, no?

No - they can use one hand to chat whilst getting cash out of a pocket with the other.

Does your QR code change from one transaction to next?

Yes. Also if you keep it open for some time, the code will change automaticly

Only for debit transaction, credit can be printed

Take out card, put on NFC reader, get out. One problem is the 20€ limit though.

Last time I was in France, there is not that many NFC terminals yet. Also both of my french cards don't support it

Also 20€ limit is fairly deal breaker, doing groceries will often be above that. Even a 2 person MacDonalds is probably something like 22€

Meanwhile even vending machines can scan your QR code in China

NFC payments quickly spread all over France in the past 12 months. It's nearly everywhere now, with no minimal payment amount.

Adoption has not been the fastest that is true. There are shops that start also supporting QR codes through Lydia, however the process is nowhere near convenient as NFC as you have to unlock your phone, launch the Lydia app, unlock it, then type the amount and that is when you finally get to the QR code. I suppose Android phones in China have the payment somehow integrated into the lock screen ?

Edit: just wanted to add that many vending machines also do support NFC payments.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com