4 ms·

Hmmm interesting.... I have had in depth conversations about this, and I strongly feel that you are missing something. Sure, in certain areas having a ipad/squa

Hmmm interesting.... I have had in depth conversations about this, and I strongly feel that you are missing something. Sure, in certain areas having a ipad/square reader combo is not necessary. It may actually be detrimental I would imagine. I am not talking about some random small town in Missouri, I am talking about less trendy districts of a city or a coffee shop with a more old school vibe. BUT in large cities and metropolitan areas having a square reader instantly makes your company more trendy and part of an in crowd. This trend will continue to disseminate outward... not with the square reader necessarily, but with some new point of sale system. But already square is at the for front of this movement, we wont continue to use these old POS systems forever. Change will occur.

ghaff 11y ago
Cut me a break. As a customer, I want to buy something and pay for it as easily as possible. If a taxi driver wants me to pay by Square because that makes them more money, I'm cool with that so long as it's straightforward. Whatever. But I absolutely have zero interest in how "cool" a given payment system is.
potatolicious 11y ago
I disagree - I live/work smack in the middle of Manhattan and I'm not really seeing a Square dominance in coffee shops around me. Yes, every coffee shop needs their cool iPad credit card processing machine, but anecdotally I'm seeing more non-Square ones than Square ones. The choice here isn't between "usable iPad thing made by Square" vs. "crappy 90s POS terminal", it's "usable iPad thing made by Square" vs. "other usable iPad thing made not by Square". I think a huge issue here is that merchants care about the bottom line, and it turns out Square does not have a lock on producing reasonable hardware/software around payment processing. Square may have invented the category but from where I stand they don't look like they own it.
- LordHumungous 11y ago
  You're lucky if they take cards at all in Manhattan, half the stores are cash only.
jes5199 11y ago
in San Francisco, I'm starting to see post-Square registers crop up. For example, Revel ( https://revelsystems.com/ https://revelsystems.com/ ) is also iPad-based.

ghaff 11y ago

Cut me a break. As a customer, I want to buy something and pay for it as easily as possible. If a taxi driver wants me to pay by Square because that makes them more money, I'm cool with that so long as it's straightforward. Whatever. But I absolutely have zero interest in how "cool" a given payment system is.

potatolicious 11y ago

I disagree - I live/work smack in the middle of Manhattan and I'm not really seeing a Square dominance in coffee shops around me. Yes, every coffee shop needs their cool iPad credit card processing machine, but anecdotally I'm seeing more non-Square ones than Square ones. The choice here isn't between "usable iPad thing made by Square" vs. "crappy 90s POS terminal", it's "usable iPad thing made by Square" vs. "other usable iPad thing made not by Square". I think a huge issue here is that merchants care about the bottom line, and it turns out Square does not have a lock on producing reasonable hardware/software around payment processing. Square may have invented the category but from where I stand they don't look like they own it.

LordHumungous 11y ago
You're lucky if they take cards at all in Manhattan, half the stores are cash only.

jes5199 11y ago

in San Francisco, I'm starting to see post-Square registers crop up. For example, Revel ( https://revelsystems.com/ https://revelsystems.com/ ) is also iPad-based.