Starbucks Partners With Square 145
Square, the start-up mobile payment service that aims to bring credit card transactions to anyone with a smartphone, has formed a partnership with Starbucks, a move that vastly increases Square's reach and visibility. According to the NY Times,
"This fall, Square will begin processing all credit and debit card transactions at Starbucks stores in the United States and eventually customers will be able to order a grande vanilla latte and charge it to their credit cards simply by saying their names. Though smartphone payments have a long way to go before they replace wallets altogether, Starbucks’s adoption of Square will catapult the start-up’s technology onto street corners nationwide, and is the clearest sign yet that mobile payments could become mainstream. ... At first, Starbucks customers will need to show the merchant a bar code on their phones. But when Starbucks uses Square’s full GPS technology, the customer’s phone will automatically notify the store that the customer has entered, and the customer’s name and photo will pop up on the cashier’s screen. The customer will give the merchant his or her name, Starbucks will match the photo and the payment will be complete."
No cashier needed (Score:5, Interesting)
Bit of an invasion of privacy isn't it? (Score:5, Interesting)
I am quite uneasy about all this gps tracking and logging which is going on these days?
Sure it's just a coffee in this case but do you really want everything logged and recorded?
How long before your inbox is getting spammed with we notice you haven't been in starbucks for a while here's a voucher to super size your coffee on your next visit. Should there be records of your movements associations and purchases.
Facebook has gotten ever more intrusive, especially with timeline they are recording where you go and who you meet up with.
Your smartphone will tag your location with gps when you take a photo in the exif information (firefox has an extension to read the exif and locate it on a map for you). I noticed facebook strips the exif data from photographs but facebook is still likely to retain it for their own purposes and of course facebook will turn over everything it has to the Police should they so request.
I'm all for using technology when it is useful to the user, but this constant casual surveillance is beginning to get more than a little creepy. You don't have to live in Syria to find a goverment who will use technology against you given the opportunity.
Re:Better than average (Score:4, Interesting)
You tried to snark, but you lose.
McDonald's, through their (insert three adverbs here) ____ ____ ____ processes, produce fries that give the best in the country a run for the money *if you time the batch cycles right*. That is, you watch the current batch of fries, wait until they burn on 4 customers, and maneuver your way to the first of the new batch. Beats EVERY TIME the nasty "home fries" that the indie restaurants seem to think taste good.
Taco Bell that you tried to hate on, has an even stronger case. You can't get out of a standard mexican restaurant under $15. (remember tips?) They have SEVEN of the best low cost meals I have ever had at fast food outlets. (Five if you count the Non-KFC Co-branded ones.)
What these lowballer corps do is force everyone else to offer something else besides price.
Re:Better than average (Score:4, Interesting)
Their fries are pretty good and their non-nugget chicken products are pretty decent as well. However, none of that excuses the horror of the substance which they refer to as "cheese". It's an insult to cheesemakers everywhere.
Re:No cashier needed (Score:4, Interesting)
In computing terms, it's the difference between serial and parallel. In this case, allowing anyone to check themselves out via their phones would mean that more transactions could be handled per minute, even though each transaction may take longer to accomplish. It would also be a less frustrating experience, since customers could go in, sit down, and make the transaction in their own time from the comfort of a nice seat, rather than having to stand in line for an interminable amount of time while the lady at the front forces the poor cashier to repeat back to her the 17 adjectives describing her "coffee" drink, just to make sure he didn't mess up the order.
Now, I'm sure we'll still need a cashier to handle people like her who want to place custom or unusual orders that aren't handled easily via Square, but for the majority of people, it can be used to speed them along. Apple has actually been using a system like this for a few months now, where any customer with an iOS device can download a retail store app, find the product they want in the store, and simply purchase it from their device, then walk out the door, all without having to ever talk to a salesperson. It sounds crazy to me, to be honest, but the people I've talked to who have done it think it's absolutely great.
How is that different than online shopping? (Score:4, Interesting)
The first time I had some hipster process my card with his iPhone, I was apalled that there was a system that *can't* issue a physical receipt.
How is that different than shopping online? You're relying on online vendors to present you with a confirmation page, which you can then choose to print on your printer, or have e-mailed to you. If you're buying a physical object, you might get a receipt with your shipment, or maybe just a packing list. If not, where's your physical receipt? It's up to you to print it.
Square will e-mail or text you a receipt. Is it that hard to enter 10 digits to get a text? If the person you're buying from is complaining, the problem is them, not the system.