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Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

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Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#91

Post by georgespencer »

robryan wrote: post #79
bigiain wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I would assume that a majority of that revenue is through a card." Really? I almost never use a card for café type purchases. Maybe if I were buying a meal, but for a coffee or two I'm 99% likely to use cash. (Note: mine is an Australia-centric view, perhaps things really are very different in the USA?)

To add to this, often cafes enforce a minimum transaction size, such as $10, to use card. This means usually you only use card it you are grabbing lunch as well.

Starbucks don't.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#92

Post by zalew »

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!

if by 'Here in Europe' you mean 'here in Germany' then yeah, in Germany cards are unpopular among small business, but here in Poland they are quite common. There is often a minimum ammount in private grocery stores, but you can pay in every corporate store or cafe like Coffeeheaven and Starbucks.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#93

Post by ivancdg »

colincsl wrote: post #90
kayoone wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 nega…

Here in France, people use debit/credit cards to buy EVERYTHING.

Some merchants discourage this by insisting on a 15 euro minimum charge. But by and large cards are used more often than cash. In restaurants it is common to split the payment of the meal and have each person contribute via a card.

It's been that way for years, although the frequency of card use is not as overwhelming as in the US.

At the supermarket, if I buy a bottle of water (0,18) I pay with a credit card. The majority of people do the same thing.

Caveat: many people, especially free-lancers, are paid in cash to avoid paying taxes on part of their income. Those people pay cash for everything. The give-away is the use of big bills (50, 100 euro bills) for small purchases.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#94

Post by hatcravat »

philip1209 wrote: post #80
lmm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

They don't have to be rich. * The fact that they pay an annual fee (even with Zync) means that they have "skin in the game" - if they use the card more, the fee is diluted on a per-purchase basis. * "customers are rich" - it's not necessarily that customers are rich, but that they spend more per month. This more specifically applies to business customers. For example, my carpentry business could use Amex as the compa…

Amex does have a few cards without an annual fee... at least the Blue series do not, and possibly others. Blue cards are more like a credit card than a charge card, though.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#95

Post by AjithAntony »

philip1209 wrote: post #62
joering2 wrote: post #4

Can someone explain me what it means for customers? As far as NYC goes, each Starbucks accepts Visa, Master Card, Discovery and American Express (the card that plenty businesses hate). So what is the benefit for the customers?

> "[. . . ] 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…

>"Visa and MasterCard get about 20% of their revenues from merchant fees. American Express gets 65% of its revenues from merchant fees, because it relies less on interest payments (most American Express card holders don't carry a balance)." [3]

Real citation needed. That Seekingalpha link is very wrong. Visa and MasterCard probably derive 100% of their revenues though merchant fees and similar. They neither lend money nor collect interest from consumers. The usurious interest rates and fees that you are trying to "vote" against are coming from the banks that issue the cards. Visa And mastercard profit by encouraging use of their card networks for every purchase. They don't care about your "pit of debt."

I'm not sure how paying an annual fee to Amex and forcing merchants to process your expensive card is helping anyone other than further enriching Amex, which in addition to being a payment network, is also operating as a bank as far as extending loans to and collecting interest from its "cardmembers." If Amex's other value added services such as rewards, return protection or whatever make it worthwhile, for your business to pay the membership and merchant fees then so be it.

My personal "vote with my dollars" strategy is to use cash for transactions where a credit card does not add value to my user experience and not to unnecessarily punish businesses with small purchases on credit. I use a Visa card because it is accepted most everywhere. I do use a "rewards" card so I do carry some guilt for any extra merchant fees that may incur.

  - Pay for gas at the pump: credit.
  - Pay for online goods: credit.
  - Pay for an expensive item with not enough cash in pocket: credit
  - Pay for a $2 coffee: cash
  - Pay for a round of beers at the pub (where a credit card will add an extra round trip for the bartender to get back to me): cash
  - Pay for anything at a local restaurant: cash
  - At McDonalds and somewhoe don't even have $2 in my pocket: credit
https://materials.proxyvote.com/Approved/025816/20120301/AR_...

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/21/215693/Vis...

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#97

Post by textminer »

ivancdg wrote: post #93
colincsl wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 nega…

Here in France, people use debit/credit cards to buy EVERYTHING. Some merchants discourage this by insisting on a 15 euro minimum charge. But by and large cards are used more often than cash. In restaurants it is common to split the payment of the meal and have each person contribute via a card. It's been that way for years, although the frequency of card use is not as overwhelming as in the US. At the supermarket, i…

Spent a summer in Paris. Still chastened by a Monoprix cashier not being able to take my card for whatever reason, and a woman in line behind me telling me it's "not like America."

Also enjoyed the spectacle of tobacconists not knowing to swipe my less-secure magnetic strip, looking for my smart card chip.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#98

Post by ErikHuisman »

ivancdg wrote: post #93
colincsl wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 nega…

Here in France, people use debit/credit cards to buy EVERYTHING. Some merchants discourage this by insisting on a 15 euro minimum charge. But by and large cards are used more often than cash. In restaurants it is common to split the payment of the meal and have each person contribute via a card. It's been that way for years, although the frequency of card use is not as overwhelming as in the US. At the supermarket, i…

Here in the Netherlands people are encouraged to use debit cards even for small amounts. Sometimes even with a small discount. The largest supermarket chain has way more "pin only" cashiers than pin and cash. It's cheaper and saver to process.

Re: Jack Dorsey: Today Starbucks Signed up for Square

#99

Post by gyaresu »

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!

Norway: Cards for everything. There's no cost associated. Plus your bank card is also your ID. Chip & PIN.
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