Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

squareup.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 199 posts

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#81

Post by jarek »

jordo37 wrote: post #75

Awesome news for square. I am very eager to see how this changes the natures of: 1) The Starbucks App - will square replace it outright or will there be an option to use starbucks or square? 2) Paying with a card at starbucks - same registers or new registers with square dongles? Hopefully its a better dongle if so... PS - Anyone noticed how they seemed to be stepping around the idea of those local businesses being o…

Android Starbucks app "card" payment was just rolled out to Canada and the UK last month - I doubt it'll go anywhere for a while for these locales. It might be interesting to see if any payment technology roll-outs beyond US/UK/Canada go with Starbucks-powered stuff or Square stuff. I'm guessing Starbucks for now.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#82

Post by raverbashing »

jevinskie wrote: post #44
faramarz wrote: post #14

This announcement makes me happy, for Square and Jack Dorsey as a young business leader. I love everything about the business idea, execution, design and tone of the overall strategy. Noteworthy points from the press release The partnership terms include: - Customers will be able to use Pay with Square, Square’s payer application, from participating company operated U.S. Starbucks stores later this fall, and find nea…

"Square will process Starbucks U.S. credit and debit card transactions": Wikipedia says that Starbucks has $11.7 billion in revenue every year. I would assume that a majority of that revenue is through a card. I am not familiar with Square's revenue but I feel that this will at least double their transactions. Am I correct?

Question

How does SB gets smaller fees through Square than negotiating directly with card providers?

How do card providers allow Square to sell their services cheaper than themselves?

And Square, you sure have a nice business, but the magnetic stripe is very insecure.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#83

Post by jamesaguilar »

lmm wrote: post #77
philip1209 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "[. . . ] American Express (the card that plenty businesses hate) [ . . . ]" This is divergent, but I feel compelled to defend Amex here on the basis of quality of leads and consumer ethics, with the main contention being a higher processing fee for Amex relative to Visa and Mastercard. # Quality of leads "Amex cards account for approximately 24% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the US, the…

So Amex only offer their cards to rich people (who are better at managing their balances, and spend more money), and then uses the fact that their customers are rich as leverage to charge merchants more? And you see this as a positive?

Hang on, is it good to help poor people hang themselves with credit card debt now? I didn't get the memo.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#84

Post by philip1209 »

gootik wrote: post #54
faramarz wrote: post #14

This announcement makes me happy, for Square and Jack Dorsey as a young business leader. I love everything about the business idea, execution, design and tone of the overall strategy. Noteworthy points from the press release The partnership terms include: - Customers will be able to use Pay with Square, Square’s payer application, from participating company operated U.S. Starbucks stores later this fall, and find nea…

While I'm happy for Square, I'm saddened that Starbucks gets special treatment. Why is Starbucks (a well known brand) getting a personal post written by Jack, when Square's "goal" is to promote and help small businesses? Maybe a more subtle way of informing the world about this partnership was better.

Square just finished a round of venture funding, but by getting Starbucks as a long-term client means they have a consistent revenue against which they can secure credit, i.e. the owners do not need to further dilute their shares to obtain funding if they can prove to banks that they have income, thus making it easier to secure a loan.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#85

Post by kayoone »

jevinskie wrote: post #44
faramarz wrote: post #14

This announcement makes me happy, for Square and Jack Dorsey as a young business leader. I love everything about the business idea, execution, design and tone of the overall strategy. Noteworthy points from the press release The partnership terms include: - Customers will be able to use Pay with Square, Square’s payer application, from participating company operated U.S. Starbucks stores later this fall, and find nea…

"Square will process Starbucks U.S. credit and debit card transactions": Wikipedia says that Starbucks has $11.7 billion in revenue every year. I would assume that a majority of that revenue is through a card. I am not familiar with Square's revenue but I feel that this will at least double their transactions. Am I correct?

Here in Europe (Germany) i have never seen anyone buying a coffee with a credit card. Maybe debit card, but that also is rare, its mostly cash for these small transactions. Most coffee shops dont even take any cards at all, even here in germany!

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#86

Post by rendezvouscp »

martinkallstrom wrote: post #76
ben1040 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One cool feature about the Square mobile app is you can set up geofenced "tabs" that automatically get opened if you get close enough to an establishment. So you keep your phone in your pocket, walk into Starbucks and order a drink as you do every morning. You tell them "put it on John's tab." You get a receipt in your email immediately thereafter, and never have to pull out your phone or wallet.

Is there any information available on how this works with iPhone? Does the app have to be running in order for the geo-fencing to work? Thankful for any information on this.

I don’t work for Square so I can’t talk about their specific implementation, but here’s how it should work:

When a “tab” is set up, the app can register with iOS to receive notifications when a user enters the geofenced region. As usual, the app will be suspended when you close it (i.e. not running), but when iOS detects you’ve entered the region, it’ll move the app into the background so it can run temporarily. In the case of Square, they might get a better GPS fix on you and tell their servers that you’re actually really close to where you have a tab open.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#87

Post by philip1209 »

bootload wrote: post #47

"... I am pleased and proud to announce that today Starbucks signed up for Square ..." Starbucks has a history of taking risks with startups ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo.com

However, here I feel that Square enhances the Starbucks core value of creating an intimate coffee experience.

# With Square:

"I am Jack and I would like [. . . ]"

(clicks name with face on screen to charge; receipt emailed automatically) "Ok, Jack, your total was [. . .] and here it is"

# Current Method:

"I would like [. . .]"

"Ok, your total comes to [. . .]"

[exchanges credit card]

"Would you like your receipt?"

"No, thanks"

"What name would you like on the order?" (while holding credit card with name on it - hence this step is meant to increase intimacy)

"Jack"

"Ok, here is your drink"

--

The Square system makes transactions shorter and simpler, and it humanizes the experience

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#88

Post by jarek »

pbreit wrote: post #71
spullara wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay with square app doesn't use the dongle at all.

The note talks about processing all Starbucks cc txns.

I am assuming at the volume in question they'll just retrofit whatever software to use the card readers Starbucks currently uses. They're pretty well built.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#89

Post by shalmanese »

raverbashing wrote: post #82
jevinskie wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Square will process Starbucks U.S. credit and debit card transactions": Wikipedia says that Starbucks has $11.7 billion in revenue every year. I would assume that a majority of that revenue is through a card. I am not familiar with Square's revenue but I feel that this will at least double their transactions. Am I correct?

Question How does SB gets smaller fees through Square than negotiating directly with card providers? How do card providers allow Square to sell their services cheaper than themselves? And Square, you sure have a nice business, but the magnetic stripe is very insecure.

I'm guessing that they are going to try and get significantly lower fraud rates from pay with square (since it's a photo verification and not an insecure card strip) which can help push down rates.

They can afford to break even on the conventional credit card side of the business if they can make their margins on Pay with Square.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#90

Post by colincsl »

kayoone wrote: post #85
jevinskie wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Square will process Starbucks U.S. credit and debit card transactions": Wikipedia says that Starbucks has $11.7 billion in revenue every year. I would assume that a majority of that revenue is through a card. I am not familiar with Square's revenue but I feel that this will at least double their transactions. Am I correct?

Here in Europe (Germany) i have never seen anyone buying a coffee with a credit card. Maybe debit card, but that also is rare, its mostly cash for these small transactions. Most coffee shops dont even take any cards at all, even here in germany!

I'm living in Germany for the summer and am surprised at how little people use cards here compared to the in the states. I love being able to use a debit/credit card so that everything I buy is logged. That means I can see everything (automatically tagged) using Mint. It also decreases the hassel of carrying as much cash around and going to the ATM as often.

On a tangent, it seems like people here have more of a negative view on credit cards - as if they assume you only use one if you can't actually pay. As long as you pay off your bill each month there is no real downside for the customer.

Post reply on HN