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Ask HN: Would you buy street-food/food-trucks using a credit card?

2 points by chirau 11y ago

I have been contemplating building an app to purchase street food using cards and I am curious whether this is something people would actually use

ctdonath 11y ago
Of course. I rarely carry cash, when I do I'd rather not use it, a CC is sufficiently secure (from experience), and a vendor having to jump thru whatever hoops to take CC as payment seems more trustworthy than an anonymous anyone with a cart. For better security & privacy, ensure that the transaction device supports "chipped" cards or, better yet, Apple Pay or other anonymizing technique. While I deeply despise the notion of a "cashless society", gotta admit it's incredibly convenient (enough to overcome my objections).
beckler 11y ago
In Atlanta, pretty much all of the mobile food trucks use Square (https://squareup.com/ https://squareup.com/). It seems very popular, and most customers seem to always pay by CC. What exactly would your app be doing differently? I've been contemplating an mobile food app as well. This a synopsis of that idea: If you could get mobile food trucks/vendors to sign up for free (in order to get some traction), create an app that lets users know what food trucks are nearby, and then let them order and pay remotely. Make money by adding a small fee (~$1) when people remotely pay. Would people use it? I don't know.
- ljk 11y ago
  many mom-and-pop shops are also using Square nowadays, never really understood how Square can be competitive, aren't they another middleman? how can they be cheaper for the stores than just using straight up card reader
- dougbarrett 11y ago
  Same with Los Angeles as well. I can almost guarantee you that Apple will at some point (possibly later this year?) include an NFC chip in the iPad line-up with a new app that will allow you to receive payment with Apple ID. Also the fact that they are making an Android application for Apple Music leads me to believe they will support Google Wallet or any NFC payment method as well.
- chirau 11y ago
  I am aware that there are some who accept cards onsite. I was leaning more towards offsite purchasing. You pay and then pick up. So it's not necessarily NFC or anything, but aggregating food trucks and vendors. Think of it like a GrubHub/Seamless for street food. Without delivery of course.
dragonwriter 11y ago
Plenty of these type of venues already take CC (mostly using Square); its pretty clear people would use it, since they already are. Of course, the question then becomes what does your app offer that incumbents like Square don't.
- chirau 11y ago
  I want to be more of an aggregator like GrubHub/Seamless with offsite purchasing. I'm guessing Square you have to be onsite since it is a POS.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    Square has POS and online ordering services, among others.
cjbprime 11y ago
Already do.

2 points by chirau 11y ago

I have been contemplating building an app to purchase street food using cards and I am curious whether this is something people would actually use

ctdonath 11y ago

Of course. I rarely carry cash, when I do I'd rather not use it, a CC is sufficiently secure (from experience), and a vendor having to jump thru whatever hoops to take CC as payment seems more trustworthy than an anonymous anyone with a cart. For better security & privacy, ensure that the transaction device supports "chipped" cards or, better yet, Apple Pay or other anonymizing technique. While I deeply despise the notion of a "cashless society", gotta admit it's incredibly convenient (enough to overcome my objections).

beckler 11y ago

In Atlanta, pretty much all of the mobile food trucks use Square (https://squareup.com/ https://squareup.com/). It seems very popular, and most customers seem to always pay by CC. What exactly would your app be doing differently? I've been contemplating an mobile food app as well. This a synopsis of that idea: If you could get mobile food trucks/vendors to sign up for free (in order to get some traction), create an app that lets users know what food trucks are nearby, and then let them order and pay remotely. Make money by adding a small fee (~$1) when people remotely pay. Would people use it? I don't know.

ljk 11y ago
many mom-and-pop shops are also using Square nowadays, never really understood how Square can be competitive, aren't they another middleman? how can they be cheaper for the stores than just using straight up card reader
dougbarrett 11y ago
Same with Los Angeles as well. I can almost guarantee you that Apple will at some point (possibly later this year?) include an NFC chip in the iPad line-up with a new app that will allow you to receive payment with Apple ID. Also the fact that they are making an Android application for Apple Music leads me to believe they will support Google Wallet or any NFC payment method as well.
chirau 11y ago
I am aware that there are some who accept cards onsite. I was leaning more towards offsite purchasing. You pay and then pick up. So it's not necessarily NFC or anything, but aggregating food trucks and vendors. Think of it like a GrubHub/Seamless for street food. Without delivery of course.

dragonwriter 11y ago

Plenty of these type of venues already take CC (mostly using Square); its pretty clear people would use it, since they already are. Of course, the question then becomes what does your app offer that incumbents like Square don't.

chirau 11y ago
I want to be more of an aggregator like GrubHub/Seamless with offsite purchasing. I'm guessing Square you have to be onsite since it is a POS.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  Square has POS and online ordering services, among others.

cjbprime 11y ago

Already do.