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> Do waiters really walk off with your credit card in America?

Some places still do, but most places I've been to post-pandemic have the servers carrying handheld POS terminals and do it tableside.

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I’ve only ever seen this outside the US. Everywhere I eat, they do the traditional “disappear with the credit card” song and dance.

Same here. The table side reader thing is something I only see at maybe 1 in 10 restaurants in my part of the U.S. During the pandemic there was a big uptick in “pay by QR code” but that seems to have gotten much less popular (I believe the extra fees charged by Toast and similar are no longer deemed worth it by restaurants).

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