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Starbucks Partners With Square
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."
Finally we could have some free coffee
Mediocrity loves company.
"Uh, yeah, I'll have a double Crono frappuccino and a venti Cloud -- be sure to leave room for Chocobo."
My work here is dung.
For being a technology site, slashdot sure has a shitty mobile interface..just sayin
Was it just me who thought this would be about making sure Square-Enix developers stayed focused?
If they can track customers as they walk in the door, why even have a line at the cashier? You walk in the door, you get a push notification to confirm or change your standing order on your phone, and then you take a seat. Once your drink is ready, you get another notification, go to the pickup counter where they confirm your photo and give you your drink.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
is our economy now based on the honour system?!
what could possibly go wrong!
I can't wait to exploit this.
Free (crap) coffee! Paid for by the nearest sucker with a smartphone.
How is this even possible, the accuracy of standard GPS and size of starbucks stores ensures there must be a high margin of error - unless I'm misunderstanding.
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.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
Am I the only one whose first knee-jerk thought was, "Wow, that's great! And from now on, I use nothing but cash!"
What's wrong with a simple asymmetric encryption system keyed to a particular cellphone, to be activated at checkout?
GPS-revealing apps already weird me out -- along with peoples' obliviousness to personal safety and/or security -- but automatically promulgating your name and photo to the store you enter quite exceeds creepy. At least this service is optional...for now.
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
I must be missing something. Square allows me to say my name to purchase coffee and saves me the great pain of opening my wallet and taking out my credit card and handing it to the cashier. I know I am a lazy fuck, but I seem to always have the energy to take my credit card out of my wallet. I know there must be more to this. Perhaps Square intends to offer debit card like services with lower transaction fees in the future and cut Visa and MasterCard out of the picture.
I am not sure I want Starbucks to track me on my phone as I enter the store, or even as I walk by the store. I definitely don't want to provide them with more data about me. I definitely don't want my children subscribing to Square. Who knows who will be tracking them.
Starbucks will match the photo and the payment will be complete
Can your average employee handle that? Seems like a risk of clicking the wrong victim. If they require the employee to type in the name first, then if they allow users to select their "screen name" or "nick name" you just know jokers like me will have nick names like "Mr Goatse" or "Mr Hugh G Rection"
The other part is I don't want retail establishments to know who I am. Not because I'm a crook but because its too creepy. I already hate having shelf stockers and oxygen wasters at Best Buy bug me every 30 seconds when I'm picking up something I already researched online at Amazon so having them call me by name is going to be even creepier and more annoying.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
One: I don't like vanilla lattes, so a grande would really be out of the question.
Two: my wife and I use the same account-- her with the card, me with the phone. How does this let us share?
Three: it is the human interaction that makes a place like Starbucks special and worth $3 for a disposable cup of colored water. Convenience and efficiency are great, but destroying that culture will be killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
Square? You mean the purveyors of the butter-slice sized "I-can't-believe-it's-PCI-compliant!" (tm) mobile payment system? 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. I know, I know, most people swipe their cards and wave off the receipt, taking it on faith that the merchant will charge only the amount shown on the till and not a little more... or the maximum I just authorized with the card-present swipe. If the charge is off, you have no proof, no way of coming back, nothing at all.
Oh sure, I can stand there for another 2-3min while I ask said hipster to email or text me a "receipt" (at least it has a transaction number) usually accompanied with a lot of huffing and puffing about how giving me a receipt is a hassle and why do I want one anyway....? Because I just did the electronic equivalent of laying my wallet on the counter and saying "Take what you need." I'd like some acknowledgement of what was taken. Is that such a burden? I still write a few checks for bills and such so there are multiple transaction types debited against a single account, and I like to reconcile payments and balance my account periodically like a grownup.
I might slide more easily into the paperless future if the rate of "error" (not really) wasn't going up. Even in my run-o-the-mill consumer usage, I've had a few instances in the past year where a person (a local drive-up barista, a dude selling t-shirts at Comicon, etc) where there was a discrepancy between what I was told and what was punched in. It's never in my favor, and if I didn't catch it in tiny print on a smudgy screen before faux-signing with my finger... And when I ask for a receipt -- even a text pseudo-receipt -- they got all flustered, and one even refused (that was the one who'd added an even two dollars). Persoanlly, if you're that hard up to steal a buck from me, you can have it. But that doesn't mean it's right.
All of a sudden this older type of "skimming" is coming back into vogue, something that I haven't seen since... well, ever in my lifetime. My parents used to talk about deli guys with a finger on the scale, and cashiers with pennies on the counter to count how many dollars in the till they'd lifted from customers (so they could balance the till by pocketing the right amt of cash at the end of the day), but I thought they were funny old-people stories. Any now Square comes along with a magical box that re-enables a petty crime by depricating auth logs... and few people seem to give a crap.
Everything old is new again.
I think not...(*poof*)
New app! Ok, so now Starbucks can virtually stalk me. Not that corporations don't already stalk all of us, but once that kind of data becomes accessible, Apps like "Girls Around Me" come to bear, and then we're all suddenly creeped out by the lack of privacy...
But hey, if I have to give up my privacy for a 1-second time-savings while buying a coffee, I guess we're all with it, then, eh?
And it only takes one moderately border-line wacko working at Starbucks to know the home address of the cute blonde that asked for a grande half-caf soy latte. Or the identity thief that decides that working at Starbucks is the way into everyone's retirement account.
We just had an article posted on Slashdot yesterday about some writer who's iphone, ipad and imac were wiped out because of lax security on the part of major corporations -- who allow you to tie together too many services making it easy to break everything. Now comes Starbucks, who will soon make it easy for others to use their account for other nefarious purposes.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Starbucks already has a mobile payment system for smartphones that uses a barcode. I haven't had to carry my starbucks card in my wallet for months. That makes is slightly more secure since my wallet can be stolen while my Android phone can be remotely wiped and is PIN-locked.
As soon as you enter a Starbucks, you're in a wifi area (attwifi) that you have to click-through before you get Internet access. If most Starbucks customers are like me, they use it. So the instant you walk into a store, there's no way for the phone to communicate to the store that you've entered, since the internet connection is being blocked by the clickthrough. This isn't a problem for the existing smartphone app since it already knows your card number and can generate the barcode. The balance and ability to reload won't work, but that may not be necessary for the transaction.
And yes, I like Starbucks. Their decaf is one of the few drinkable varieties.
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.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Not that it hasn't been ongoing already...
My wallet stays in a secured, not-readily-accessible pocket, and only comes out when I need it. My phone is shown and changes hands everywhere, so friends and acquaintances can look at photos, videos, or use an app. I understand the big corporate push to monetize your smartphone - it's part of the neverending drive to depersonalize and devalue money so corporations can more easily separate it from you - but why do people buy into it? Is the minute convenience of not having to converse with the barrista or pulling out your wallet really worth the NFC security risk? No thanks! I might as well wear my credit card number, expiration date and CVV on a T shirt.
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
It's strange that they're only targeting Grande Vanilla Lattes. But they must know what they're doing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0VdFi8p_wM
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.
But Robot Chicken Final Fantasy Burger Chain
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
That should please the idiots at Microsoft who designed 'The Ribbon' and 'Windows Metro'... what a bunch of arrogant, out of touch morons they must be, as they sit round, trying to come up with even more stupid and unfriendly user interfaces...
Taco Bell is not Mexican food. It is Tex-Mex inspired junk food. That's not to say I don't enjoy it on occasion, especially a green buritto and a MexiMelt. But there are at least 30 good Mexican restaurants in Dallas I can go to for under $15 (food, non alcoholic drink, tax and tip), many under even $10. And there isn't a single meal at Taco Bell I would consider one of my favorite low cost meals. Del Taco just opened in Dallas, and I personally like it better.
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.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
McDonald's has sort of won me over too... I like their hot fudge sundae and for about $2.50 total I can get that, plus a 32 oz diet Dr. Pepper. Fountain drinks aren't always equally good everywhere, but IME theirs are consistently good. Subway for dinner then McDonalds for dessert and I am happy.
Seriously. We are not talking about a major mover here. We are talking about a company (Starbucks) which sells a great deal of one thing. When Walmart or Home Depot or someplace that sells many millions of dollars of different items signs up then this is important. Starbucks using Square is just the company trying to stay 'current', 'cause Square is what all the cool kids are using now.
"produce fries that give the best in the country a run for the money"
I will accept this if you exclude fries made out of sweet potatoes from your comparison.
You cannot beat sweet potato fries. This is very important.
Otherwise, I'm fine with your post.
If you haven't had sweet potato fries, do yourself a favor and acquire some. Then you will understand the occasion for my post.
Taco Bell that you tried to hate on
Just "hate". Not "hate on".
Do you "love on" or "like on" things? No, of course you don't.
Couldn't you hack the receipt printer to send out the wrong amount?
I guess this just makes it easier, and like you're saying, the problem comes mostly at the direct interaction level.
One of my managers at McDonald's (some time ago) would work drive-thru on the headset all by himself -- he was the cashier, order taker, and hand-out guy. He would tell customers a slightly higher amount than they really owed and then pocket it. I guess he would just skim the extra cash immediately so the change matched the receipt, and since it's all verbal, it's hard to trust yourself or give proof when you're looking at a printout or complaining (to my manager) at the store.
And it's not common to be keenly aware of small details in any sort of constant fashion in everyday life. As far as I knew, he got away with it. I don't think he did it on every order either.
"Personally, if you're that hard up to steal a buck from me, you can have it." But that doesn't mean it's right.
I think this is a good attitude. It certainly isn't right, but it is unwise to be disproportionately angry over such things.
At which point you dispute the charge. Hell, my bank's website has a little "dispute" link next to each card-based purchase in the transaction history view. And the best part is, if the transaction was a non-signature purchase (which they are by default if you never see a receipt, obviously), you pretty much win by default!
Do you own and operate a brick & mortar small business? Do you take credit cards as a part of that business? If yes, how much was the initial cost of the setup? What percentage do you pay to each respective company for each transaction? If no, what percentage of your customers wished they could have purchased more, but were lacking their checkbook + enough cash on hand to pay?
The Square has done wonders for small businesses that otherwise would not be able to offer card transactions. And yes, if there is a mistake on the transaction, you can call up the company and ask to get it fixed. A $12 tip at a restaurant that should have been $2 gets refunded in 1-2 business days. If the merchant refuses or is otherwise unavailable, you dispute it with your credit card company.
Your other points are valid with respect to having a better audit system available and physical receipts. A mini, mobile printer that could integrate with the Square sounds like an excellent idea. Other mobile devices already offer this, and I can see the Square benefiting from this as well. If you have the resources, I would encourage you to develop and sell such technology to Square, you'd probably make a nice profit from it. Otherwise, it probably will be offered as an add-on in the future, just wait for it.
“Pay With Square, Square’s cellphone app, which eliminates even having to take the phone out of your pocket or sign a receipt.” Okay, so how does the cell phone app work if I don't actually unlock the phone or run the app? And while you're at it, if I'm inside a shopping mall, the GPS location is going to be completely wonky and it will have no idea what store I'm actually in.
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
No, thanks. I've tried "sweet potato" fries a dozen times, and they always manifest at best, a nasty aftertaste reminiscent of moldy spinach.
The only things worse are beets and brussels sprouts.
You must have really, really horrible credit cards. Get an AMEX. If a charge is off, call them - they'll fix it. I even had a situation where a mechanic shop charged me $1k for /not fixing/ my harley, so after a bit of protesting I walked out the door, called AMEX, and let them handle it. I did have to send in a little form defending my protest of the charge, but only because it was $1k, versus the $10 charge for a $3 coffee that would be much faster. The business is the one who is responsible for creating an audit trail they can not modify - when have you ever used the slip of paper (which fades to unlegible in microseconds anyway) to protest a charge after the fact?
Kingdom Hearts Mocha Latte?
Oh sorry, wrong Square.
Regarding McDonalds fries, I suppose that is a matter of taste. I prefer a thicker cut fry. That still doesn't change the fact that the product that McDonalds is best known for---their bugers---are mediocre to terrible. As you rightly point out, McDonalds is not competing on quality, but on price and speed. There are many places where I could get a better burger (and better fries, too), but I am going to have to pay more or wait longer (or both).
Regarding Taco Bell, you have once again made my point for me. I can go to a real Mexican restaurant and get a great taco, but it will likely cost me more than a Taco Bell taco. You buy a taco at Taco Bell not because you want a high quality meal, but because you want a fast, cheap meal.
Rhapsody in Numbers
McDonalds fries are processed food products poisoned with various toxic chemicals. None of these chemicals will drop you dead in your tracks, so ignorant people believe they are "good food" because the combination of fat and salt pushes the right neurons. The health issues that people get from eating at McDonalds has been well documented. Even a casual observer can see the people coming out of a McDonalds and tell there is something amiss. Many of these people are obese or misshapen or seem to have mobility challenges or motor control difficulties. Regardless of shape, most of them are poor. McDonalds, along with the other fast food places, is where poor people go to eat so they die quicker. Like Goldman Sachs, but in a different industry, McDonald's does "God's work".
I think I can still get a 'better than average' fish taco at San Loco for $1.50. Beats the hell out of Taco Bell. I suspect your standards are pretty low. Oh, and home fries are not the same things as french fries.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
... I like their hot fudge sundae and for about $2.50 total I can get that, plus a 32 oz diet Dr. Pepper...
why the "diet" dp? trying to cut back on sugar, are ye?
duh, wunder if yer 'merican.
Same AC as the one you replied to.
I happen to like beets and brussel sprouts. Last week, I ate a small can of beets, and I have a pack of frozen brussel sprouts in my freezer, waiting to go in the steamer.
I suppose I didn't notice any aftertaste to sweet potato fries because I just kept eating them...
Ever have sweet potato chips? (American definition for chips) Those are likewise fantastic.
I agree the "diet" appellation we still use here in the US sounds a bit odd compared "lite" as used most other places.
But yeah, it's the sugar. In a 32 oz drink that would be 90 grams of sugar and 360 calories. That's like eating an entire second hot fudge sundae (370 cal), except ALL of it is sugar.
A plain McDonald's ice cream cone has 150 cal, 18g sugar, 4g protein, 2g sat. fat, so it's actually relatively sane for a treat. I know, it's not the same as Haagen-Daaz, but personally I like it.
"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."
The first time my card was processed on a phone, the customer service guy walked over to a printer and tore me off a receipt.
You are near a Starbucks.
Our analytics predict that you are thirsty.
And we just charged you for a venti pink frilly-frally-frappuccino.
So you might as well come in and drink it.
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
You've never really used this system, have you? Or does it actually take you two to three minutes to type in your e-mail address on a pad? Really? Two to three minutes? Because it's swipe, sign, optionally-type, done. I've done hundreds of Square transactions, and it takes seconds. You don't know what you're talking about.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
How many cups do I need to purchase to have my account flagged for suspicious activity?
I would gladly pay the price for real cheese. The extra .20 would be worth it.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Haagen-Daaz sucks. Ben & Jerry's blows that shit out of the freezer.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
And to sum it all up....
Get off my lawn you punk kids!
=P
I happen to like beets and brussel sprouts.
Which is probably the reason you like sweet potatoes. I don't like any of those foods, as they taste bitter to me. It's a genetic trait.
> it's swipe, sign, optionally-type, done.
> I've done hundreds of Square transactions, and it takes seconds. You don't know what you're talking about.
You are clearly an unusually adept expert. Oh wait.... no.
The standard *actual* usage scenario is... hand my card over, wait for the person to dig out his/her phone from their pocket, wait for them to dig out the Square dongle from some other pocket or purse, wait for them to plug it in and swipe, swipe, swipe to find the app, start it, fiddle with the dongle because it's not reognized, pull it out, plug it in again, swipe the card, set it down, check the amount, type it in, no wait... clear, and type it in again, hand it to me to "sign", take it back to submit, I ask for a receipt, they say they don't know how to do that, I say click the 'receipt' option, they ask their partner/manager/boyfriend whether that's ok, there's a minute of mumbline and quibbling, they push a button and hand it back to me... I type out a number, then they click submit... and wait... and wait... and if we're lucky, THEN the transaction "takes seconds." If we're not, the transaction fails for any number of reasons (mostly crappy signal/data service drops off), and I'm standing there even longer watching some slackjawed yokel tapping at his ifruit, wasting my time.
You're either an atypical client in a stable location (in which case you could get a much better rate elsewhere), or you're a salesperson for Square.
I think not...(*poof*)
So your compaint is about small-time retailers who don't understand the value of your time, and thus aren't prepared to cashier your order. You'd have the same complaint if they used a classic wireless credit card terminal, but didn't have it turned on or loaded with paper until after you handed them your credit card.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
It seems as if xeno is just itching for a reason to complain, when it would have been easier for everyone involved if he just had cash on hand. The vendor obviously isn't forcing him to charge the transaction, or even preferring it. Otherwise they'd have the dongle already attached to their iPhone or iPad, have the app running, and likely have been using it without incident (gasp! Even sending SMS/email reciepts!) many times that day and before.
I have a Square dongle, and a GoPayment one. I've used the Square to clear the remaining oddball balance from a Visa gift card into my checking account, and it was easy as "Open app, plug dongle. Enter amount, swipe card, sign something, click "Continue to receipt". Type a phone number or email, click Submit (or skip receipt)." That's it.
In fact, I just charged myself $1 from another bank's card...which will cost me $0.03 (no big deal). It took not even 30 seconds from when I unlocked my phone, to getting the confirmation text. For someone who has used it before to run transactions, or even many times as a small vendor should have, it's not that complicated!
aaaand...whee!