Credit or debit cards for starters are nothing short of shoppers' Novocain. Even in the age of digital purchases and virtual money we still attach a special value to dirty paper with pictures of presidents on it. Handing some of that to a cashier simply hurts more than handing over a little sliver of plastic.
The great advance of personal computers was not the computing power per se but the fact that it brought it right to your face that you had control over it that were confronted with it and could steer it.