It's not required until Oct 1 (new fiscal year), and even then, I suppose chip-and-PIN is, technically, voluntary. Banks aren't forcing retailers to use it, as they're not blocking retailers who don't convert -- they're just putting the responsibility on retailers to prevent fraud.I've been really surprised by the lack of pay stickers in retail stores, almost like its not really a thing here. I know chip and pin is only just getting going as a payment method but I just expected pay to be promoted a little more...in the UK I see reminders everywhere that stores take it (or at the very least the contactless payment logo)
I went to Busch Gardens and Sea World over the summer as well as I work in the water park of an amusement park and I noticed the same as you in all of these parks. The sport is extremely popular, I even seen the gold sport a number of times days after it launched. The SS I've only ever seen with the sport band and they are quite hard to spot. I was seeing 1-4 sport watches a day at work but the SS was 1 every few weeks.I just came back from an extended weekend Disney trip and I was surprised to see the apple watch being worn fairly regularly. Obviously I could not count who had and who did not have the watch, but I did notice a lot of folks wearing it. The sport watch was the predominant version by a wide margin, I think only spotted 2 SS watches and everyone else had the sport.