Topic: I went to Meze Grill today and paid with VISA (Read 7155 times)

I don't think you can retire on 17 BTC.

Meze Grills' Bitcoin account (the one they had as "a QR code on a big laminated card":
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MTbKpYWnzqmsLvCjdTtwrvuX81g3HCgC

This is thread is getting sad and is putting me in a quagmire. I'm about to embark on the Chicagoland area to get several restaurants, mainly, to accept Bitcoin. Three restaurants are co-owned by what's becoming friends of mine, coupled with supplying them barn wood for past and future restaurants, when they expand, notwithstanding. (damn, I hope that sentence is written correctly)

No, DON'T forget about in-person transactions.

The mistake many businesses make when starting to accept Bitcoin is that they expect an increase in turnover quickly. I have seen merchants jump off after 8 weeks because they only got a few extra customers in that time and thought it therefore wasn't worth the effort. But it doesn't work that way.

It does take time but after accepting Bitcoin since sometime in 2011 in our restaurant in Berlin (ROOM77) we can absolutely and definately say that not only has it brought us a lot of media attention but it is actually driving business to our place.

I don't only mean the monthly Berliner Bitcoin-meetups held at our place (we give out too many Pamperos on these evenings to make money on them anyhow ). We get reservations from all over the world from people comming to Berlin who know exactly where they want to go for dinner without consulting any restaurant guide and even dragging their local friends to ROOM77 because they want to pay in Bitcoin. I know for a fact that no other bar/restaurant in Berlin of our size and profile is getting that kind of business and this is increasing steadily.

So accepting Bitcoin DOES drive customers to your brick'n'mortar business and if you offer a positive customer-experience you can even turn their non-Bitcoiner friends into regular customers and very often into new Bitcoin-users as well .


That is not true either. Anyone comming from out of the Euro-zone to Berlin has clear advantages when paying in Bitcoin over having his credit card charged in a foreign currency or changing cash at Western Union. Just do the math.

Joe

Shouldn't have given up on bitcoin!  If they had simply held onto the bitcoin they earned for meals, could have possibly kept them in business.  Don't convert your bitcoin back to fiat!  HOLD

just imagine if the Meze Grill owner had saved all the BTC paid to him since day 1 of opening his doors to Bitcoin.  he might have been able to retire by now.

This seems to be a scenario that seems to be uncommon in the United States.  If I go anywhere in the US from LA to NYC, it is unlikely I'll have to change my money around at any point. 

No, DON'T forget about in-person transactions.

The mistake many businesses make when starting to accept Bitcoin is that they expect an increase in turnover quickly. I have seen merchants jump off after 8 weeks because they only got a few extra customers in that time and thought it therefore wasn't worth the effort. But it doesn't work that way.

It does take time but after accepting Bitcoin since sometime in 2011 in our restaurant in Berlin (ROOM77) we can absolutely and definately say that not only has it brought us a lot of media attention but it is actually driving business to our place.

I don't only mean the monthly Berliner Bitcoin-meetups held at our place (we give out too many Pamperos on these evenings to make money on them anyhow ). We get reservations from all over the world from people comming to Berlin who know exactly where they want to go for dinner without consulting any restaurant guide and even dragging their local friends to ROOM77 because they want to pay in Bitcoin. I know for a fact that no other bar/restaurant in Berlin of our size and profile is getting that kind of business and this is increasing steadily.

So accepting Bitcoin DOES drive customers to your brick'n'mortar business and if you offer a positive customer-experience you can even turn their non-Bitcoiner friends into regular customers and very often into new Bitcoin-users as well .


That is not true either. Anyone comming from out of the Euro-zone to Berlin has clear advantages when paying in Bitcoin over having his credit card charged in a foreign currency or changing cash at Western Union. Just do the math.

Joe

That is not true either. Anyone comming from out of the Euro-zone to Berlin has clear advantages when paying in Bitcoin over having his credit card charged in a foreign currency or changing cash at Western Union. Just do the math.

No, DON'T forget about in-person transactions.

The mistake many businesses make when starting to accept Bitcoin is that they expect an increase in turnover quickly. I have seen merchants jump off after 8 weeks because they only got a few extra customers in that time and thought it therefore wasn't worth the effort. But it doesn't work that way.

It does take time but after accepting Bitcoin since sometime in 2011 in our restaurant in Berlin (ROOM77) we can absolutely and definately say that not only has it brought us a lot of media attention but it is actually driving business to our place.

I don't only mean the monthly Berliner Bitcoin-meetups held at our place (we give out too many Pamperos on these evenings to make money on them anyhow ). We get reservations from all over the world from people comming to Berlin who know exactly where they want to go for dinner without consulting any restaurant guide and even dragging their local friends to ROOM77 because they want to pay in Bitcoin. I know for a fact that no other bar/restaurant in Berlin of our size and profile is getting that kind of business and this is increasing steadily.

So accepting Bitcoin DOES drive customers to your brick'n'mortar business and if you offer a positive customer-experience you can even turn their non-Bitcoiner friends into regular customers and very often into new Bitcoin-users as well .


That is not true either. Anyone comming from out of the Euro-zone to Berlin has clear advantages when paying in Bitcoin over having his credit card charged in a foreign currency or changing cash at Western Union. Just do the math.

Joe

Forget about in-person transactions. That can come later when we have a stronger network of users.

Besides, a much better competitor already has us beaten there: cash.

Dollar General now takes PayPal without a debit card via their checkout. You choose PP and give it your phone #, then your PIN.
Simple and fast.

Please understand where I'm coming from, for I'm not dissing Bitcoin by any stretch of the imagination. I'm simply seeking solutions to the damn chicken and egg dilemma. It now seems to me that both aspects need to solved simultaneously for each and every sector. This is not a bad thing, but does require a little more effort for all concerns.

Using Chicago as an example, here's one approach.

A convention/expo/etc. is in town. At this large convention is a booth manned by a dozen Bitcoin Gone Wild girls. Early in the evening, the girls are split up into three groups, now at three different bar type establishments. This event has been billed two weeks in advance, hence now being packed by patrons. These patrons needed to have a Bitcoin wallet already installed on their smartphones prior to showing up for this event. If they don't have bitcoins prior to showing up, they'll be able to purchase some at the venues at a slight premium, which they'll be happen to do so to get a chance to meet and have their picture taken next to a Bitcoin Gone Wild girl.

I'm saving the rest of this post for another thread (guess which one), but wanted to show that there's still a way to make this work for a myriad of real world markets. The key word here is "simultaneously." (damn, I hate putting periods inside quotes--looks to ugly)

~Bruno~

When I was there it was shut down, last Tuesday 12 March 2013. Shutdown must have occurred very recently, even their website is still operational today.
Of course I wouldn't have gone there if I had known that they didn't accept btc any more.

I also took two photos, so you can see for yourself (click photos for more details/original size):

I was in NYC over the holidays and walked past Meze Grill. Didn't even go in since I knew they no longer take BTC. But they looked fully in-business.

As much as I dislike being cunicula's sockpuppet, bitcoin retail purchases are dead in the water.

Think about PayPal. They have hundreds of millions of individual accounts. They are accepted by hundreds of thousands of online retailers. Yet, do you know of any restaurant where you are able to pay with your PayPal balance using a custom PayPal checkout solution ? That's because even for PayPal the network effects are too faint to compete with the credit card oligopoly.

Instead, PayPal issues it's own credit card, so you are able to pay using your PayPal balance while using the de facto payment standard - credit cards. Bitcon's network effect is thousands of time fainter than PayPal's, it can barely compete with it online. Retail purchases in bitcoin are pure fantasy, IMHO.

We love this place!

The food is fresh and delicious.  When we asked a couple of questions, the owners came over and sat with us and answered all of our questions.  They are wonderful and obviously care very much about our concerns.   They assured us that, Yes, the chicken is free-range and antibiotic-free, etc.

They are working on transitioning to more and more of their vegetables being organic, sustainably grown, and from local sources.  

For example, they tell us that within the next few weeks they will be adding an all-organic vegetable smoothies and juice bar to their offerings.

We also learned that this is the one-and-only "flagship" location of this new restaurant.  We can see the potential for this to become the next new HUGE franchise -- like a Chipotle or Jamba Juice, or something like that.  There is also a very famous celebrity chef involved.  We're not really up on celebrity chefs, so we don't remember who it is... But he's very famous.  Ask them.  They'll tell you all about him.

The food is delicious and they give you a very nice portion -- including a nice portion of meat too (not jut rice and lettuce!) -- for the reasonable prices they charge.

We love supporting small businesses, and start-ups.  We'll pass on supporting all the Walmarts and McDonald's and Starbucks and Whole Foods of the world.  

PS - Please note that many people mis-spell the name.  We've seen it referred to as "Meza Grill on 8th Ave."... but the correct spelling is:  Meze Grill... (pronounced, MEZZ-ee)  See their site: http://www.mezegrill.com

Bitcoin adoption happens gradually based on its usefulness. Currently the biggest Bitcoin market is Silk Road and the reason is that Bitcoin is most useful for something like that. After this it will start spreading to other markets where it is not as useful, but still pretty neat. At the other end of the spectrum we have the brick-and-mortar stores which will most likely be the last place Bitcoin will ever have any significance. Anything is possible in the future but we're definitely not there yet. This is simply how it is. If you want to try a brick-and-mortar store, try one that has 1-2 people as staff so everyone can be educated easily. In that case it doesn't necessarily cause any extra costs to accept Bitcoin (if the owner has a smartphone). Any smart business owner will accept it then because there is nothing to lose by doing that.

I don't know what the next big market for Bitcoin will be, it could be virtual gaming markets, online gambling, porn, auction sites, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, online/mobile donations or just simply p2p local/international money transfers. I don't know what it'll be but I can guarantee that all of the former will be big markets for Bitcoin way before brick-and-mortar stores.

This reminds me of all of those Bitcoin startups that have attempted to launch a Bitcoin retail store online, not realizing that they are basically competing with Amazon by doing that. It's a hard road. This is the same, even PayPal which is gargantuan compared to Bitcoin, hasn't had an easy time with brick-and-mortar stores. Have patience guys, Bitcoin might eventually reach even the least probable markets but not today. Now it would be more productive to focus on the markets that have better potential and only offer Bitcoin to brick-and-mortar stores if it can be done without extra investments and staff training (except the owner/owners of course).

...and the "Bitcoin Accepted Here" sticker isn't there anymore.