“Sometimes you will get people who are like ‘Oh dear,’” said Cooper, who said she got a particularly shocked reaction from another Whole Foods customer when she recently signed up to use their palm payment technology. That allows customers to check out with a scan of their hand, no phone or wallet required.

“I was in Home Depot one day and I paid with my watch and the guy behind me, who was about the same age as me, he was in awe,” said Mike Kirwin, 67, of Oxford Circle. “He was like ‘You paid with your watch?’”

The cashier, who looked to be in her 20s or 30s, seemed similarly surprised when she looked up from the register.

But for Kirwin, paying with his Apple Watch has become second nature ever since he received the gadget in 2018. It was a retirement gift after a 36-year career with SEPTA and a present initially meant to help him track his daily seven-mile walks more easily than on phone apps. It soon proved beneficial for everyday payments.

“It is so much easier with the watch because you don’t have to take the phone out of your pocket,” said Kirwin, who only carries a small money clip with a single credit card and some cash.

For years before that, he used the digital wallet on his phone. A retired manager in SEPTA’s video evidence unit, he said he has always been the “IT guru” in his friend group, though he makes an effort not to “preach” or try to convert people to the technology if they’re anxious about it. He just answers their questions objectively.

In terms of the benefits of digital wallets, “the biggest thing is security,” said Kirwin. He feels safer not taking his money clip out in public, he said, and regularly monitors his bank accounts online, including with alerts for transactions over $5.

Marlene Smolen, 71, said she, too, feels more secure using her Apple Wallet. Knowing she can usually pay with her phone, she recently switched from carrying a large pocketbook to a smaller crossbody bag.

“It’s a convenience thing,” said Smolen, a retired Realtor who lives in Queen Village. To her and her husband, the digital-wallet technology “comes easier to us than some of our kids.”

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