Checkbooks are slowly going the way of the dinosaur as more and more people are using electronic transfers such as debit cards. Also more and more businesses are refusing to accept checks.
Bankers in Britain are attempting to abolish cheques (yep, that is how they spell it!) altogether while many business in the United States are refusing to accept checks for payment. Whole Foods has stopped accepting checks in many of their Northeast region locations with no problems and now they are experimenting with this policy across the nation. Other retailers are following suit.
Good news for the environment, stores and banks as a paper check costs much more and depletes many more resources than electronic forms of payments.