Who's Getting Pay-By-Phone Right? The Fast Food Industry 153
jfruh writes "Techno-enthusiasts have been predicting for years that cell phones will become one of the main means that we use to pay for items — but most Americans stubbornly cling to cash and credit cards, mostly because cash and credit cards are infinitely more convenient. In order to woo people into buying things electronically, merchants need to make phone purchases better than traditional payment systems, not just another option. The fast food industry is leading the way with a plethora of apps that make ordering remotely a snap."
Fastfood? (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean people who are too young or too poor to have a credit card use this to buy fatfood?
Who would have thought?
Re:small purchases are better with cash (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, the bank closes at 1:00 Saturday afternoon, often by Monday Morning I'm out of cash and might get a breakfast burrito with my card. Phone? Crazy. Yeah, one of two things:
1. Take out my card, swipe it, put it back in my wallet.
2. Take out my phone, press the "on" button, swipe to unlock, hit "home", find the app, do whatever the hell the app needs me to do and... fuck it, use the fucking credit card. Using a phone to pay for a burger is retarded. It's less convenient, what's the fucking point??
Re:Stubborn? (Score:5, Insightful)
If as the summary says, cash and cards are infinitely more convenient, why then is clinging to them to be considered stubborn?
Because the author is a moron. Cash and cards are NOT more convenient, they are less convenient. When I go out, I always take my phone so people can contact me. So if I can use my phone to buy stuff, then I don't need to carry cash or cards. Where I live (California) I don't even need a wallet to drive, because it is legal to show a cop a photo of my drivers license on my phone. As soon as I can start my car and open my front door with the NFC chip in my phone, then I will only need ONE THING in my pocket when I leave my house. What could possibly be more convenient?
The lack of phone-money in America has nothing whatsoever to do with customers being "stubborn". It is because of the fragmentation of the American cellular system, and the lack of cooperation among the vendors. Once they finally agree on a standard, phone-money will be adopted by consumers in America just as quickly as anywhere else.
Re:Starbucks figured it out early (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, cash is quite expensive for a store to handle. They have to pay someone to count out change, and to count it again at the end of the day. They have to pay an armored car service to haul it to a bank (or a small business owner has to drive it to a bank themselves, and they hope they don't get mugged on the way. It's easy to steal, so they have to invest in locked cash drawers and safes.
Cash easily costs more to handle than credit cards. Even after figuring in card fraud and bad debt, credit cards save retailers money.
Re:small purchases are better with cash (Score:0, Insightful)
I almost never have cash, I mean not even a single USD in my wallet.. I travel all over the US via planes, trains, and sometime automobiles away from home for days at a time. I average about 60-90 days away from home a year. The only people that ever complain or question using a CC is the taxi drivers and only because they have to give up a higher % of the bill when I use it. Two restaurants I went to in NYC only took cash but both had ATM right outside the door. Even the food car on Amtrak takes CC and on planes they only take CC for food and drinks (at least United only takes CC)
Not having cash has nothing to do with organization. It has to do with you always doing what you are familiar with because it makes sense to you. Maybe you feel comfortable having cash that in your wallet. I have no problem in the worst case that I do need, finding an ATM nearby but like I said, that is very infrequent. The amount of times I have to go to the ATM to get cash is a lot less then you do I bet or do you get paid in cash or go to the bank and withdrawal on a regular basis?