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May 25, 2011

Spin City Gets Square

Square is the hot new mobile payment startup in the Bay Area that its founders hope will someday replace cash registers in small businesses. So of course it's also already being well-used in Noe at the postage-stamp-size Spin City Café (aka the place that serves Blue Bottle on 26th at Sanchez).

Here's how it works: Order a coffee, and when the merchant swipes your credit card, you get your receipt by email. Leave your card on file with Square, and next time you visit the shop you can browse the menu and pay via smartphone.

Tech blog writer and Noe resident Xavier Lanier at GottaBeMobile shot this video of the Square in action at Spin City, featuring the cafe's owner/barista Maricar Lagura and her iPad.



Go say hi and you might get your own Square says Lanier:
"I didn’t just leave with a couple of cups of coffee on this visit. Maricar wouldn’t let me leave without taking a Square dongle for myself. Square’s apparently supporting this word of mouth campaign by loading loyal users up with extra Square dongles, which are compatible with iOS and Android devices."
[Square, Inc.]
[Gottabemobile: Small Business Owners Love Square]
Posted at

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 25, 2011 at 10:17 PM

    wow - i thought "dongle" died in the 90s, alongside "SCSI."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nails DoverspikeMay 26, 2011 at 12:50 PM

    Why put your purchase of a less-than $4 cup of coffee through all of these electronic hoops???? Maybe you can also tweet that you are having a coffee at Spin City and then put it on your facebook page The swipe, fyi,causes Spin City to pay an extra fee and may cause an increase in price of my next coffee purchase. Have you internet dependent-smartphone folks ever heard of paying for such a small purchase by simply using CASH? I know that small merchants would much prefer your cash to any other form of payment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 26, 2011 at 2:30 PM

    I enjoy reading peoples complaints about over use of social media on a blogs comment board. Well done Nails, well done.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MicMay 28, 2011 at 12:49 PM

    Yeah, what Hammer said. Except that even tech-addicts like Maricar understand that he's losing money on $4 transactions. So once he has customers hooked on BlueBottle Squared, the minimum usage fees kick in. His profits rise and he has less worries about securing cash money.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 28, 2011 at 1:32 PM

    Good comment Nails. I totally agree. There are so many idiot out there who are seriously addicted to all of their electronic devices. I'm so sick of people posting on FB that they eating something or doing some stupid shit.

    ReplyDelete

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