> I honestly don’t even recall the time when the magnetic stripe was needed.

Every time I've been to the US it's still magnetic stripe in places like restaurants/bars where the wait staff whisk your card away and then 4 days later the charge ends up appearing on your card.

I saw chip and pin (or sometimes the odd chip and sign) appearing in the big shops/chains like walgreens though so I guess it's slowly changing.

It felt a bit like what the UK was like 15-20 years ago.