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Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

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Owen Densmore

Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

Administrator

Whoa! Tom J and I aren't the only ones! It's definitely the coming thing.

-- Owen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jack Dorsey <[hidden email]>
Date: Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 10:09 PM
Subject: Starbucks signs up with Square.
To: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>

August 8, 2012

I am pleased and proud to announce that today Starbucks signed up for Square.

Square began with a really simple idea: everyone should be able to accept credit cards. It should be easy and free to get set up, it should use simple technology people already own, and, most importantly, it should instantly adapt to any size business—from the person chasing a dream to the largest organization on the planet. By embracing Square, Starbucks has validated these ideas as powerful tools—not just for small businesses, but for smart businesses.

It's amazing to think that Starbucks began as a single coffee shop in Seattle. The concept of taking a good idea and helping it grow is not foreign to them, and Starbucks doesn't just view Square as the simplest way to accept payments. They see an opportunity to extend and accelerate a model they grew up with: the idea that business is local and that community plays a vital role in job creation and economic vitality. When Starbucks builds the Square Directory into their apps and in-store Digital Network, it gives Square new visibility, driving more customers to opt-in to Square. And with nearly 7,000 Starbucks stores soon accepting Square, these new payers will be able to find your business (including coffeehouses) and pay with their name, building community and creating value.

Our customers make us who we are, and we are proud of every single one of you—including our newest. Our promise to you remains the same: build simple, affordable, and fast tools that level the playing field for everyone. Thank you for helping us build Square. And please share your thoughts and tweets; I'm listening.

As Howard Schultz says: #Onward,

Jack Dorsey
CEO
Square Inc.

For more information about this partnership, visit our Help Center.

© 2012 Square and the Square logo are trademarks of Square Inc., 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.
If you prefer not to receive commercial email from Square, you may unsubscribe.

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Victoria Hughes

Re: Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

I have one also, and love it. Artists were very early adapters to this technology, for obvious reasons.

Many of us who are small businesses / artists find this solves perennial POS issues, particularly when we have studio sales, or sell at shows around the US.

Tory

On Aug 8, 2012, at 9:46 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:

Whoa! Tom J and I aren't the only ones! It's definitely the coming thing.

-- Owen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jack Dorsey <[hidden email]>
Date: Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 10:09 PM
Subject: Starbucks signs up with Square.
To: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>

August 8, 2012

I am pleased and proud to announce that today Starbucks signed up for Square.

Square began with a really simple idea: everyone should be able to accept credit cards. It should be easy and free to get set up, it should use simple technology people already own, and, most importantly, it should instantly adapt to any size business—from the person chasing a dream to the largest organization on the planet. By embracing Square, Starbucks has validated these ideas as powerful tools—not just for small businesses, but for smart businesses.

It's amazing to think that Starbucks began as a single coffee shop in Seattle. The concept of taking a good idea and helping it grow is not foreign to them, and Starbucks doesn't just view Square as the simplest way to accept payments. They see an opportunity to extend and accelerate a model they grew up with: the idea that business is local and that community plays a vital role in job creation and economic vitality. When Starbucks builds the Square Directory into their apps and in-store Digital Network, it gives Square new visibility, driving more customers to opt-in to Square. And with nearly 7,000 Starbucks stores soon accepting Square, these new payers will be able to find your business (including coffeehouses) and pay with their name, building community and creating value.

Our customers make us who we are, and we are proud of every single one of you—including our newest. Our promise to you remains the same: build simple, affordable, and fast tools that level the playing field for everyone. Thank you for helping us build Square. And please share your thoughts and tweets; I'm listening.

As Howard Schultz says: #Onward,

Jack Dorsey
CEO
Square Inc.

For more information about this partnership, visit our Help Center.

© 2012 Square and the Square logo are trademarks of Square Inc., 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.
If you prefer not to receive commercial email from Square, you may unsubscribe.

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Tory Hughes

unusual objects and unique adornments

www.toryhughes.com

www.toryhughes-galleryshop.com

www.facebook.com/tory.hughes1

Owen Densmore

Re: Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

Administrator

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Victoria Hughes <[hidden email]> wrote:

I have one also, and love it. Artists were very early adapters to this technology, for obvious reasons.
Many of us who are small businesses / artists find this solves perennial POS issues, particularly when we have studio sales, or sell at shows around the US.

Tory

Interesting! Any tales to tell about their account, deposits etc? Do you find the 2.75% cost OK?

My next use will be to take a friend to quail run for dinner, charge it to our bill, and take the friend's part from his credit card (he never carries money, only cards). The interchange is necessary due to QR's quarterly meal charge .. if you don't use it, you loose it and it has to be on your account.

I initially thought this was as nuts as my earlier buying tools, magnifier, etc to fix my iPhone, but thus far both have been used in interesting situations.

-- Owen

Victoria Hughes

Re: Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

The 2.75 is less than the 2.99 + 30 cents a transaction that Paypal charges. As for most people with small businesses, Paypal has been my primary tool for cc transactions for years now: I have two shopping cart websites and a number of pp buttons standing alone on one of my regular websites.

Square means I don't need to rely on the customer to click through, or send an invoice and wait for payment to confirm sales. And neither of us has to be online for transactions to happen.

Have heard great stories of people at yard sales and flea markets using Square.

Acrually, it's becoming cash in that sense, yes?

Right here, right now, I give you money and you give me stuff.

We still rely on the illusion of a layer of tech to do it.

We carry around our virtual cowrie shells, and agree to leave them here and there.

Ever hear about Yap Money?

We became a mobile economy a while ago.

Does this mean the implants are next?

Tory

On Aug 8, 2012, at 10:04 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Victoria Hughes <[hidden email]> wrote:

I have one also, and love it. Artists were very early adapters to this technology, for obvious reasons.
Many of us who are small businesses / artists find this solves perennial POS issues, particularly when we have studio sales, or sell at shows around the US.

Tory

Interesting! Any tales to tell about their account, deposits etc? Do you find the 2.75% cost OK?

My next use will be to take a friend to quail run for dinner, charge it to our bill, and take the friend's part from his credit card (he never carries money, only cards). The interchange is necessary due to QR's quarterly meal charge .. if you don't use it, you loose it and it has to be on your account.

I initially thought this was as nuts as my earlier buying tools, magnifier, etc to fix my iPhone, but thus far both have been used in interesting situations.

-- Owen
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Tory Hughes

unusual objects and unique adornments

www.toryhughes.com

www.toryhughes-galleryshop.com

www.facebook.com/tory.hughes1

Steve Smith

Re: Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

I'll be more interested in this when it is applied to some kind of local barter currency.

We are all (mostly) upper middle class professionals with fat bank accounts (well maybe not if you got caught in the market or housing collapse)... but the point is... most of us have significant resources.

We are not deciding if today's wages from the $10/hour job we are lucky to have is going to buy groceries, repair the car, or pay down our last visit to the ER because we don't have medical insurance or a regular physician.

If/when barter networks grow to a proper scale, they can help normalize the distribution of (cash) wealth in a community. Many of us may think that our time is worth 10 times that of the person who hauls off our trash, but in fact, in a true community, everyone's time and energy and engagement is valuable and is NOT a commodity. I *want* my friends and neighbors to live a vibrant life even if they haven't engaged deeply in the cash economy. This is part of what limited the success of SFX with the City contract! Their metrics were almost entirely measured in $$, which makes sense for them, but the other exchanges that happen(ed) via SFX (and this list is a precursor/extension) is a good example.   Owen's pentalobe and magnifiers "saved" me probably hundreds of dollars and weeks of anguish (if I'd just handed my soggy phone to an Apple person), and if I "pay it forward" and help another friend replace a screen, that is multiplied.

We should all be willing to trade an hour of our time helping our neighbor set up a network of sensors in their gardens and henhouse for a dozen eggs or a colander full of fresh greens rather than ordering them on amazon to be delivered by a stranger wearing a jet pack and paid for by shaking our mobile phone in a magic pattern in the direction of theirs.

In the meantime, I see things like square as very useful for folks like Tory and entertaining to many of the rest of us as early adopters of a cashless system.   I first saw this (not square but something like it) 5 years ago at a concert where the road manager for a band took orders for a copy of the *live* performance we were watching to be made on-the-fly and distributed 15 minutes after the end of the concert. The guy whipped out his iPhone with a tiny dongle (like the square) stuck in the top of the phone and he swiped your card, asked for 2-3 pieces of information and viola!   He had a CD duplicating machine onsite next to his laptop recording the feed from the mixer and viola! I was happy to pay $15 on the spot!   I think the graphics for the cover were prepared ahead of time (in the hotel the night before?)...

I think personal POS systems are very good ways to help individuals move up the "food chain" and get paid the retail price for things instead of some producers price that a wholesaler marks up double to a retailer who marks it up double and they all conspire to ship it all over the country and throw some percentage away as waste or discount it below your original cost to remainder it in large lots.

I believe that much of the third world has adopted cell phone "credit" as a (micro) currency to be zipped around between cell phones *without* a credit card *or* a square...   I'm not clear on the details, but I don't think most of them can get credit (or debit) cards and the big companies would never settle for 2-3% of transactions under $1 ...   but somehow the cell phone prepaid credit system manages (they are working on the "float" of our cash for one thing.).

I also hope that if someone offers (I know this to be likely actually) a few cowrie shells or more likely, a piece of their own work that catches Tory's eye, she would make that trade before whipping out her square and her iPhone to collect cash into her account.   This is important in building and maintaining the networks we call "community". Exchange of value over commodification of people's time and effort.

errrh... Don't let me get off on a rant here...

- Steve

The 2.75 is less than the 2.99 + 30 cents a transaction that Paypal charges. As for most people with small businesses, Paypal has been my primary tool for cc transactions for years now: I have two shopping cart websites and a number of pp buttons standing alone on one of my regular websites.
Square means I don't need to rely on the customer to click through, or send an invoice and wait for payment to confirm sales. And neither of us has to be online for transactions to happen.

Have heard great stories of people at yard sales and flea markets using Square.

Acrually, it's becoming cash in that sense, yes?

Right here, right now, I give you money and you give me stuff.

We still rely on the illusion of a layer of tech to do it.

We carry around our virtual cowrie shells, and agree to leave them here and there.

Ever hear about Yap Money?

We became a mobile economy a while ago.

Does this mean the implants are next?

Tory

On Aug 8, 2012, at 10:04 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Victoria Hughes <[hidden email]> wrote:

I have one also, and love it. Artists were very early adapters to this technology, for obvious reasons.
Many of us who are small businesses / artists find this solves perennial POS issues, particularly when we have studio sales, or sell at shows around the US.

Tory

Interesting! Any tales to tell about their account, deposits etc? Do you find the 2.75% cost OK?

My next use will be to take a friend to quail run for dinner, charge it to our bill, and take the friend's part from his credit card (he never carries money, only cards). The interchange is necessary due to QR's quarterly meal charge .. if you don't use it, you loose it and it has to be on your account.

I initially thought this was as nuts as my earlier buying tools, magnifier, etc to fix my iPhone, but thus far both have been used in interesting situations.

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Tory Hughes

unusual objects and unique adornments

www.toryhughes.com

www.toryhughes-galleryshop.com

www.facebook.com/tory.hughes1
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Victoria Hughes

Re: Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

Why not both?

What is your take on things like the Santa Fe Time Bank ?

Go on, Steve, we love it when you rant.....

Tory

On Aug 8, 2012, at 10:47 AM, Steve Smith wrote:

I'll be more interested in this when it is applied to some kind of local barter currency.

We are all (mostly) upper middle class professionals with fat bank accounts (well maybe not if you got caught in the market or housing collapse)... but the point is... most of us have significant resources.

We are not deciding if today's wages from the $10/hour job we are lucky to have is going to buy groceries, repair the car, or pay down our last visit to the ER because we don't have medical insurance or a regular physician.

If/when barter networks grow to a proper scale, they can help normalize the distribution of (cash) wealth in a community. Many of us may think that our time is worth 10 times that of the person who hauls off our trash, but in fact, in a true community, everyone's time and energy and engagement is valuable and is NOT a commodity. I *want* my friends and neighbors to live a vibrant life even if they haven't engaged deeply in the cash economy. This is part of what limited the success of SFX with the City contract! Their metrics were almost entirely measured in $$, which makes sense for them, but the other exchanges that happen(ed) via SFX (and this list is a precursor/extension) is a good example.   Owen's pentalobe and magnifiers "saved" me probably hundreds of dollars and weeks of anguish (if I'd just handed my soggy phone to an Apple person), and if I "pay it forward" and help another friend replace a screen, that is multiplied.

We should all be willing to trade an hour of our time helping our neighbor set up a network of sensors in their gardens and henhouse for a dozen eggs or a colander full of fresh greens rather than ordering them on amazon to be delivered by a stranger wearing a jet pack and paid for by shaking our mobile phone in a magic pattern in the direction of theirs.

In the meantime, I see things like square as very useful for folks like Tory and entertaining to many of the rest of us as early adopters of a cashless system.   I first saw this (not square but something like it) 5 years ago at a concert where the road manager for a band took orders for a copy of the *live* performance we were watching to be made on-the-fly and distributed 15 minutes after the end of the concert. The guy whipped out his iPhone with a tiny dongle (like the square) stuck in the top of the phone and he swiped your card, asked for 2-3 pieces of information and viola!   He had a CD duplicating machine onsite next to his laptop recording the feed from the mixer and viola! I was happy to pay $15 on the spot!   I think the graphics for the cover were prepared ahead of time (in the hotel the night before?)...

I think personal POS systems are very good ways to help individuals move up the "food chain" and get paid the retail price for things instead of some producers price that a wholesaler marks up double to a retailer who marks it up double and they all conspire to ship it all over the country and throw some percentage away as waste or discount it below your original cost to remainder it in large lots.

I believe that much of the third world has adopted cell phone "credit" as a (micro) currency to be zipped around between cell phones *without* a credit card *or* a square...   I'm not clear on the details, but I don't think most of them can get credit (or debit) cards and the big companies would never settle for 2-3% of transactions under $1 ...   but somehow the cell phone prepaid credit system manages (they are working on the "float" of our cash for one thing.).

I also hope that if someone offers (I know this to be likely actually) a few cowrie shells or more likely, a piece of their own work that catches Tory's eye, she would make that trade before whipping out her square and her iPhone to collect cash into her account.   This is important in building and maintaining the networks we call "community". Exchange of value over commodification of people's time and effort.

errrh... Don't let me get off on a rant here...

- Steve
The 2.75 is less than the 2.99 + 30 cents a transaction that Paypal charges. As for most people with small businesses, Paypal has been my primary tool for cc transactions for years now: I have two shopping cart websites and a number of pp buttons standing alone on one of my regular websites.
Square means I don't need to rely on the customer to click through, or send an invoice and wait for payment to confirm sales. And neither of us has to be online for transactions to happen.

Have heard great stories of people at yard sales and flea markets using Square.

Acrually, it's becoming cash in that sense, yes?

Right here, right now, I give you money and you give me stuff.

We still rely on the illusion of a layer of tech to do it.

We carry around our virtual cowrie shells, and agree to leave them here and there.

Ever hear about Yap Money?

We became a mobile economy a while ago.

Does this mean the implants are next?

Tory

On Aug 8, 2012, at 10:04 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Victoria Hughes <[hidden email]> wrote:

I have one also, and love it. Artists were very early adapters to this technology, for obvious reasons.
Many of us who are small businesses / artists find this solves perennial POS issues, particularly when we have studio sales, or sell at shows around the US.

Tory

Interesting! Any tales to tell about their account, deposits etc? Do you find the 2.75% cost OK?

My next use will be to take a friend to quail run for dinner, charge it to our bill, and take the friend's part from his credit card (he never carries money, only cards). The interchange is necessary due to QR's quarterly meal charge .. if you don't use it, you loose it and it has to be on your account.

I initially thought this was as nuts as my earlier buying tools, magnifier, etc to fix my iPhone, but thus far both have been used in interesting situations.

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

<mime-attachment.jpeg>

Tory Hughes

unusual objects and unique adornments

www.toryhughes.com

www.toryhughes-galleryshop.com

www.facebook.com/tory.hughes1
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Tory Hughes

unusual objects and unique adornments

www.toryhughes.com

www.toryhughes-galleryshop.com

www.facebook.com/tory.hughes1

Steve Smith

Re: Fwd: Starbucks signs up with Square.

Tory -

Why not both?

Both is good. We are so far beyond a barter economy that It would be absurd (as if that usually stops me?) to suggest that we could revert... I can just see myself walking into the Quik Stop with a handful of chickens clutched by their legs hanging from one hand cooing and clucking gently but confusedly as I say "put 4 chickens on pump number 10 and could you throw in a pack of Native Spirit Blue for this pretty rock I found?" It might make for a nice scene in an independent movie shot directly to iPhone, but it probably wouldn't work out so well in real life.

I just want to remind us that all of our high-tech gadgetry often helps us race *away* from where we probably want to be... and I agree with your own anecdotal experience with PayPal and the Square that they *support* you in engaging personally, etc. rather than the opposite.

What is your take on things like the Santa Fe Time Bank ?

Yes, this is of what I speak... though not living *in* Santa Fe nor being very engaged in it's economy, it isn't as obvious for me specifically.   When it spreads more and maybe gets more streamlined (when at a Garage Sale, Organic Market, or high end Canyon Road Gallery, the seller whips out their mobile device and says "will that be cash, charge or SantaFeHours?"   then we are really on to something.

I knew of this first as "Ithaca Dollars", an experiment (still in progress?) in Ithaca NY maybe 30 years ago. What caught me most was the "normalization of value"... that a Dentist's hour was worth the same as a day laborers hour...   I'm not sure how the difference in specialized equipment (XRay machine vs a shovel) or preparation (12 years of college vs growing up dirt poor working hard) is accomodated, but my gut feeling is that it isn't... and maybe shouldn't be. Sure, the day laborer maybe trades 3 hours to the Dentist's 1 hour to cover the dental assistant and receptionist ... etc.   but the point is the Dentist's time isn't presumed to be worth 10 or 20 times that of the day laborer. This is probably important to both sides of the normally unbalanced equation... to see each other as people again, and to value what they do and perhaps therefore what they do.

In practice, this probably only works with excess labor... the Dentist is going to find it hard to make this trade for more than 20% of his work, or whatever schedule he doesn't already have filled... after all he has expenses the day laborer doesn't. A Mercedes costs more than an old pickup as do the Country Club fees compared to a walk in the park or a cruise in the Fjords of Scandinavia vs a camping trip to the lake. And while the day laborer would gladly give a few hours of his work in exchange for having a tooth pulled or filled (as appropriate and needed), a Dentist's time is normally totally worthless to him... what can a Dentist do for you if you don't need a tooth pulled or filled and really, how many times a month can you have your teeth cleaned just because the Dentist needs his septic system dug up and replaced?

But I'll bet that even a little bit of this is empowering... I find it more in my personal life, as the principles of "help thy neighbor" and pay it forward are part of why I choose to live in the country and mostly among people of very modest means.   The Pojoaque/Nambe/Tesuque/Espanola Valleys are littered with middle class folks (many who work at LANL) among home there are many others who are living in a small adobe built by their great grandparents, modified by their parents and grandparents and in the process of a fresh upgrade to accomodate a baby on the way.   Many live at least partly off of the garden, the chickens and the goats they keep, heat with firewood they collect themselves, repair their own appliances and vehicles, etc.   This mixture isn't always ideal for all parties, but in many cases, the neighbors of wildly different backgrounds have become friends and they *do* exchange via an undocumented barter system... one helps the other and vice-versa because they are neighbors and both know not to take advantage lest they lose the neighborly relation. The middle-class (often) city-folk learn as much or more from their country-bumpkin neighbors than vice-versa.

And some don't. They put a gate on their driveway with a remote opener and come and go to their jobs (or to their trust fund managers) and the opera and give their neighbors out in their fields or up on their roof patching a hole a hairy eyeball as they drive by, grumbling about the dogs happily yapping at the tires of their hummer or range rover as they drive by with windows rolled up, AC and Stereo cranked up while texting and scheduling on their mobile phone.

And sometimes the neighbor is third generation heroin addict and pusher... grandma is still selling but only using to settle her bones, while the great-grandson is running with a nasty crowd and his best friend just shot someone and went to juvie until he turns 18...    so of course we want to lock our gates and turn our faces away from our neighbors... they might be dangerous.   Maybe we can buy heroin with Santa Fe Hours? Probably not... but $US whether in a paper bill recently rolled to snort a line of dangerously cut Cocaine or as an online transaction via your Square spends well anywhere, anytime.   The IRS and the ATF and the DEA would like to know where every $US is spent (for obvious to them reasons?) but I am pretty sure that Santa Fe Time, by it's very nature is less risky as a medium of funding bad behaviour.

It is basic economics that says money is worth more when it is flowing fast... but I think what it is to be human requires a different pace... Kurzweil would say "the only way out is through" (the Singularity that is), but I'd like to think otherwise.

I'll go back to Yap currency. I recently gifted the run down shed in my back yard to a friend who covets it. For her birthday I gave it to her and said I would even help her disassemble (demolition) and move (haul off) it whenever ready. I also have a nice bucket of whitewash I offered to let her paint my fence with.   In the meantime she now owns a perfectly good Picaresque but generally (to me) unusable building which she may in turn gift or trade to someone else... I may find that her Dentist will come by one day to run his hands over it, admire it and tell me what a good shed one of his Patients traded him for a gold crown!

Go on, Steve, we love it when you rant.....

And those who don't know how to roll their eyes and hit "Next"! Thanks for the encouragement... I think<grin>. What important deadline am I avoiding again? I forget!

- Steve

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org