I’ve noticed this behaviour at another Threshers store too, this time the staff tell me that their ’systems require it’. It’s good of them to tell me this, but I have no idea whether this is actually true! This is exactly the kind of behaviour you’d see where an unscrupulous member of staff is skimming card details to be cloned, so we’re right to be concerned.

A friend of mine saw this happening last night, which prompted me to email Threshers to find out exactly what’s going on. They should clearly tell customers what they’re doing, and at the very least have the swiping done in plain sight.

When Threshers reply to my email, I’ll post it here to get this cleared up.

Meanwhile, a number of people have replied to me on Twitter saying: “It’s so they can reconcile the till with the card machine as the two systems are not linked“. Sounds like you need to upgrade your systems, First Quench Retailing.

[update] I thought it’s worth mentioning that the main reason I’m concerend about Threshers implementing this practise is that it effectively legitimises the action of using chip and pin, and then swiping the card away from sight, which is exactly what card skimmers rely on. A great example of an anti-pattern in action.