The whole chip thing takes like 30 more seconds. I'm considering carrying cash to just save time.
Weird. In Germany, it's usually very, very fast (recently, using my Number26 CC, payment in three seconds including PIN entry, and ten seconds later I got the push notification on my phone).
But that may also very well be because it's rare here to see outdated terminals. Most retail chains change their card terminals every two or three years, because they listen to their customers who actively demand speedy transactions. Oh, and because stores usually don't own the terminals but rent them (cheapest solutions are at < 20€/month and terminal). Downside: CC fees for merchants can range up to 4%, most of it goes to the CC providers.
It mostly seems smaller merchants simply don't switch their acquirer to get cheaper rates and complain about "high costs". FWIW, credit cards are capped at 0.3% interchange (which is what the bank gets), debit cards at 0.2% since last year. Scheme fees for MasterCard/Visa are peanuts and even AmEx doesn't cost 4%.
For example see https://www.cashforless.de.
Visa/MasterCard credit and debit 0.98% German debit (girocard) 0.25%
The only terminals in the US that take the chipped cards are brand new (because the cards themselves are new and the deadline to accept them isn't quite here yet). I don't know why they are so slow, but they are all brand new machines.
I feel awkward and foolish with it, since it's ostensibly so simple, but so inconsistent. Add in a watching-water-boil time delay, and it's just a great recipe for social anxiety. One wrong move can jam the works. (Like, I once pulled the card out too early when I heard it beep at a Target and the register had to cancel the order and restart.)
For example, the Wawa chain of convenience stores on the East coast are very good at moving people through the registers. Around 10-15s per transaction sustained throughput is common: one or two items, beep beep good day. If someone pays by check or chip, the whole thing grinds to a halt and everyone taps their foot.
This was well before chip-and-pin, they probably did because of the slowness of writing checks.
Though maybe this is all moot with self-checkout since the store doesn't really care that much if it takes you a bit longer to check out. Especially if they can show you ads while you wait.
The chip also enables contactless transactions which is even faster.
The card swipe doesn't use the same reader hardware as the chip reading (well, it is in the device) and there is more processing going on with more round trips to the bank if using the chip. Likely different parts of the software are used both at the reader and the bank as well.
They do have the nifty portable readers, though.
But I can tell you that my German card is quite slow in Germany (not as slow as US transaction though) but blazingly fast in Sweden, Denmark, or France.
Canada has them, too, and they're great at restaurants. Great for tipping since they just hand you the device at that point with common percentage options on screen (or the option to customize it).
The American experience of server collects your card, comes back with two receipts, mental arithmetic to figure out the tip, write it down on the receipt, hand the receipt back, and server types in the tip amount just seems clunky in comparison.
In general, though, I carry cash for tips since I know those probably won't be taxed.
Always amusing to see confused Americans in Canadian restaurants, though.