Is "POS" a common word in every day conversation when you're shopping?

Hi
In my country we call this POS (although we have coined an equivalent for that). Do you call it POS as well? Are there any other equivalents for that? When we want to pay we just simply say: "Excuse me, do you have a POS?" and then if the answer is yes, we pay by card. Do you also use it in this way? If yes do you pronounce it as /poz/?
Thanks a lot.
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moonlike said:

Hi
In my country we call this POS (although we have coined an equivalent for that). Do you call it POS as well? Are there any other equivalents for that? When we want to pay we just simply say: "Excuse me, do you have a POS?" and then if the answer is yes, we pay by card. Do you also use it in this way? If yes do you pronounce it as /poz/?
Thanks a lot.
View attachment 1311

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I've never heard of "POS".

bhaisahab said:

I've never heard of "POS".

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Really! I found that it stands for "Point Of Sale". It seems that it's not an English word by itself. I thought it's an international abbreviation. So could you kindly tell me what you call it? Imagine when you go shopping and you want to make sure the shopkeeper has this gadget or not, instead of just saying "can I pay by card?" what other things do you typically say? I mean if you want to say if the shopkeeper has one of these things?
Thanks a lot.

moonlike said:

Really! I found that it stands for "Point Of Sale". It seems that it's not an English word by itself. I thought it's an international abbreviation. So could you kindly tell me what you call it? Imagine when you go shopping and you want to make sure the shopkeeper has this gadget or not, instead of just saying "can I pay by card?" what other things do you typically say? I mean if you want to say if the shopkeeper has one of these things?
Thanks a lot.

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I would say "Can I pay by card?". The machine in the picture is called a "chip and pin reader."

It's so common to use your debit (or credit card) to pay for things here that you rarely need to even ask. Even fast food restaurants have that capability. We would call that a credit card scanner or a debit card reader. Aside from the drive through window, I use my debit card almost exclusively. Cash? What's that?

I can use my debit card or credit card at a drive through.

People who make cash registers or other business machines, etc. refer to "point of sale" or POS, but it's not used by normal people.

I think many people would hear POS and think "piece of s@#t," like "that used car is a complete POS."

I wouldn't ask if they have the relevant machine. I would just ask "Do you take cards?" or "Can I pay by card?" Some places can still accept payment using a debit/credit card even if they don't have a POS machine. I knew what POS meant but only because I have worked in shops. Even so, when we talk about one in the shop, we just call it a "card machine".

Here in Canada the term is also frequent, but is pronounced with all letters named.

moonlike said:

Hi
In my country we call this POS (although we have coined an equivalent for that). Do you call it POS as well? Are there any other equivalents for that? When we want to pay we just simply say: "Excuse me, do you have a POS?" and then if the answer is yes, we pay by card. Do you also use it in this way? If yes do you pronounce it as /poz/?
Thanks a lot.
View attachment 1311

Click to expand...

The term exists in BrE, but is not used in everyday speech- it's jargon to me.

I would add that on those rare occasions when I would use the term POS, I too would say "pee oh ess," not "paws" or "poss" to refer to it.

A lot of people just ask 'Do you take plastic?' (Of course you could be asking whether they're a recycling centre for plastic toys [;-)], but the context makes the question unambiguous.) Maybe this use of 'plastic' to mean 'credit and/or debit cards' is a British thing, and strangely, it doesn't seem to apply to loyalty cards; if MrsK calls out to me 'Don't forget to take some plastic' as I leave to go shopping, she means Visa or Mastercard - not my TopMan loyalty card (if I had one). ;-)

b