by Ed McKinley, Contributing Editor, AVISIAN Publications

Los Angeles dazzles, New York overwhelms and Chicago gets the job done on broad shoulders. But don’t look to America’s urban behemoths for the latest in payments technology. Tiny La Junta, Colo.–until now known mainly for melons, corn and cattle–is becoming one of the nation’s first hotbeds of open-loop, community-oriented, rewards-based wireless debit payments.

Some 500 customers of The State Bank of La Junta automatically debit their checking accounts when they tap their cell phones on dedicated readers at more than 50 participating businesses in and around La Junta. Their town, a county seat of 8,000 residents far from the ski slopes and in the middle of relatively flat southeastern Colorado, could become a model for the nation, observers say.

A contactless chip in a Bling Nation sticker attached to their cell phones exchanges radio signals with the reader to pay for anything from a steak at Boss Hogg’s Saloon, a trim at the I Need Fabulous salon or a fill-up at any of the area’s five Tank N Tummy C-Stores.