As an avid road fan, I've been in 47 out of 50 states (no Hawaii, Alaska or Vermont) and roadtriped around 50.000 miles, in the course of 7 years.

I've stayed in hundrends of small cities, from Ogalala, NE to Ozona, TX and Oatman, AZ, and used my credit cards for all kinds of purchases, from Kroger and CVS, to outlet stores, gas, local shops, small eateries, fast food places, restaurants etc.

Never had a vendor inprint my card.

It still happens. I had it happen at a gas station in the middle of nowhere Nebraska or South Dakota (where he probably didn't have internet) as well as at a gas station in a bigger town where their internet was out.

I was under the impression a lot of swipe machines used plain old phone lines. No?

Older ones did. Newer ones tend to run over the internet. They don't tie up a phone line at either end of the connection, and the information transfer is much quicker, so in most circumstances it works better for everyone.

Imprinting happens a lot at hotel check-ins, in my experience. They will often imprint your card onto their copy of the check-in document.

Yeah, it's a low-end version of a pre-authorization. If the room is already paid for in advance, and you have no extra charges, they can just shred that imprint.

I had it happen at a Denny's in Oregon, and not because the electricity or phone lines were down, but because that's just how they processed cards.

I have at least a dozen in the past 6 months from Taxi/limos in various US states and Canadian provinces, and a couple from road diners.

Have you never been in a cab in a major city?

Had my own car for the trips, but have used cabs for convenience in Chicago and NY. I usually pay cabs in cash though (probably because I never think of cabs as accepting cards, thinking by my country's norms).

None of the taxis in any major city I've been in lately take imprints either; they have the normal card-swipe machines that retail businesses have.

It's been a shift in the last few years. They're rare now.

Better to ask, have you been _outside_ America. For I presume, in most countries who adopted CCs fairly recently, the concept of 'offline transaction' is entirely foreign.