The Way Change Works Now

On a recent stop to the Milk Bar on RT 7 across from the Rt 33 intersection I saw probably one of the greatest examples of how change is coming faster and can fundamentally change or replace exsiting processes.

Having set up a retail store in a previous life, I know that one of the biggest hassles is setting up how you will take and process money. There is the cash register, and training that goes along with it, bank deposits and then credit card processing.

The cash register is usually some complicated bit of mid-low level technology which takes a lot of time to set up and more to master. Those of you who have worked retail checkout, especially the older NCR machines, probably remember a time when you hit the wrong button in the wrong sequence and the machine started beeping at you and went into "unresponsive-as-heck" mode with a line of customers standing in front of you tapping their feet and looking at their watches. Then there is setting up a credit card terminal and all of the training that goes along with that. And they are not that portable.

Baby Cat Milk Bar uses a new bit of tech called a Square from Square Up. It works off of an app running on either an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch (an Android version is available as well). They use the iPhone version when they go out to the farmers markets and events.

The app is easy to set up and the Square itself is small and easy to use (it's the little white thing on the bottom right of the iPad). You can link to your bank account so your money can be direct deposited and the fee is 2.75% which is slightly higher than some discount processing houses but there is no monthly fee, no terminal rentals and no supply expenses. It also allows for cash transactions which means that it is a fully functioning cash register.

The point of this post is this, Square may change the way retail takes in and processes money circumventing a whole industry. Change does happen. Today it happens at a much faster pace then we are accustomed to.

We, as human beings living in this age need to be able to open up to change. To embrace it, and by doing so, help guide that change or at the very least be part of it.

Comments

  1. I agree, Skip. I need to take on a more positive attitude myself.

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