> One of the reasons I covered the checks as a payment method recently was to lay the groundwork for talking about some of the fascinating alternative financial world around them. In the main, this helps people at the socioeconomic margins turn payroll and other checks into cash (or otherwise immediately spendable value) in return for a fee. This is not how you, reader, probably deal with checks, and the existence of this industry / product have been controversial for many years.
So what's funny is that the topic is actually totally alien to me. But that's because I have only ever dealt with one or two checks in my life (when interacting with an American company paying interview expenses). And otherwise, I've never handled them at all. They just have been out-of-use in my parts of the world (Europe, Singapore, Australia) for at least as long as I've been economically active in them. From what I've heard, the US is going in that direction as well? So many younger people would have never handled checks there either?
But the paragraph just assumes that you would be familiar with checks in general, but not with check cashing. (Later on in the article, our author explains the basics of how well-enough-off people handle checks. So that's fine.)
Edit: reading further down, I'm ok with the tone of the article and don't share the concerns.