Topic: I went to Meze Grill today and paid with VISA - page 3. (Read 7155 times)

Actually you can now pay at Home Depot at the self checkout register with Paypal.  I know Home Depot is not a restaurant but I do think it marks a coming trend. 

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~

Confidence is the biggest problem, imho. I think the entity that did the most damage to that in Bitcoin was the MyBitcoin.com scam. (If i remember right, that was the payment processor for Meze Grill back then also.)

Did the members of the Bitcoin community who lost the most B to MyBitcoin even put up a bounty for the whereabouts, identity and the balls of MyBitcoin.com's owner?

Just given that, not to mention financial reasons, if i were a small merchant like Meze, for now i would stick with "the devils i know" also... 

And LadyBytes.

Merchants A-L: We accept Bitcoin.
Merchants M-Z: How's that working out for you?

~Bruno~

It won’t. End of story.

I would much rather focus on the sectors that have no other choice than Bitcoin, like Silk Road for example.

Risk is not their main concern. They took risks when they first opened up. They'll gladly take risks each time they accept checks and credit cards. The other risks they have to contend with is employees and customers suing their asses over bullshit, food poisoning, etc. They'll even allocate any extra time and resources to process Bitcoin transactions. The bottom line is that owners want to hear how Bitcoin will benefit their bottom line--more customers.

~Bruno~

That general situation sounds so familiar! Somewhere in between:

Merchant A: Hey no fair! How come you guys are making a killing just because you started selling Barbie first?!
Merchant B: Haha! Sucker!

So if a certain market isn't ready for Bitcoin yet, save your energy and move on to a segment that is more receptive. Nothing wrong with a first adopter advantage.

Edit: maybe retail/consumer eatery margins just aren't that tight. Any Internet based/Internet-ready retailers you could lend a hand to?

If we want restaurants to accept BTC today, we need to take the risk out of it for them and make it simple.  For restaurants, payments need to be converted to cash immediately.  A 3rd party BTC payment processor is the solution I think would have a chance at succeeding.

It's not a "libertarian" issue, but it is a free-market issue.  This forum is full of people who have accepted the risk of supporting bitcoin, the rest of the world is right to reject it given how insignificant it is right now.  At some point someone will be willing to take the risk, raise some capital and start targeting an area where they may have the most success.  A college town, a tech company campus, etc.  IMHO bitcoin isn't ready for that yet, and that why I'm here trying to share ideas and occasionally bump heads with the rest of you in hopes of helping it get there.  You can't expect the world to put it's confidence in utilizing bitcoin as a currency system with a market cap of $40M... that's a yacht.

As optimistic as i am about B, for now, i have to agree with the naysayers that B is impractical at the cash register. I am in the 3rd world boonies right now, where my favorite eatery accepts only the local paper money. It's too expensive for the locals - 16USD a plate and up, but still considers it disadvantageous to accept even CC's for several reasons...

I told the young, IT-literate guy who manages it about B, its benefits to him, and things like Bit-pay. It's not appealing to him. None of his customers besides me have even heard of Bit-pay, OKpay, etcetera, not to mention Bitcoin...

The current payment processors, such as Bit-pay, charge the same as the powers that be to move payments into fiat, AND are subject to the same fiat moving restrictions due to the American-led War on Terrorism, Drugs, Iran and Whatever-Else-They-Can-Think-Of... 

SO, EVEN where B doesn't have to compete with ANY other form of electronic payment or EVEN strong fiat paper, it's not appealing to store-front merchants...  Nothing lasts forever though... 

For now, i think B has much better potential with things like classifieds and auctions. 

There is, along with the dozen or so times it's happened prior, but the merchants still keep faith in Visa/Mastercard. They don't have faith in something that is relatively new.

Example:

Salesperson: I have this new kind of doll. It's called Barbie.
Merchant: I'm not interested, for nobody's asking for it.

Later:

Salesperson: I have this new kind of doll. It's...
Merchant: Is it Barbie?
Salesperson: Yes. And it cost only...
Merchant: We're clearing shelf space now.

~Bruno~

I believe the fees ain't the problem or the selling point. If I owned a restaurant and was approached by a bitcoiner, the last question on my mind would be fees. (following in different voice) As a restaurant owner, I'm accustomed to fees. Fees don'f faze me. What fazes me is you wasting my time by not telling me how Bitcoin is going to better my business, even if it's long term, for I understand it may not help overnight. My competition, Meze Grill, around the corner stopped accepting Bitcoin. Tell me what's that all about. Thank you for the flyer, and please return when you have something more substantial to share, otherwise you're wasting both our time.

~Bruno~

The recent news about Visa/Mastercard security breaches is like a gift from the gods. There must be some way to combine that into a sales pitch.

Come to think of it, one thing that I suspect may work against people who are trying to promote Bitcoin, is their altruism, believe it or not! People are so accustomed to sales pitches that if they can't see how you're supposed to benefit by charitably promoting Bitcoin, they immediately suspect it's some kind of scam. It's probably better to promote a Bitcoin-based product that provides some direct benefit to you, because it ironically seems more honest to the layperson.

Bit-Pay charges 2.69%, versus Square's (credit card processor) 2.75%.

Go do some research before you post stupid shit.

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)

Now, it doesn't worry me to get egg on my face by friends. I like eggs. It doesn't bother me to exert time into an endeavor that may be for not. I've done it before and hopefully do it several more times before I pass. I'll continue to press forward with this, for I believe that Bitcoin is too vital to fail.

Meze Grill was a fine example to use as I, as well as all others, approach potential brick-and-mortars with the pitch. Yet, I can clearly see that a couple three dozen bitcoiners can't justify a handful of restaurant owners into accepting Bitcoin, especially in a large city like Chicago.


Perhaps, we're missing something. An extra oomph for B&M's that would make Bitcoin tower above all else that's currently available. What that oomph is, at the moment I'ven't a clue. But with all the bright minds here, I'm confident that oomph will manifest itself.

I'm going to have more to say on this important issue, but I'll end this post with only the thoughts above.

~Bruno~

You'd make a respectable sockpuppet. We have to get you a new icon, though. Make sure that it pisses off libertarians please. Report back when you've found something.

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Go tell all the restaurants you know about the wonderful savings they can enjoy if they accept "bitcoin" instead of regular payments...

On second thought, there are probably some very good reasons why the number of "competing" CC companies in the world seems to be so small. At a guess, they've probably got incompatible communication systems and/or software requirements in the point-of-sale readers... Not such a simple problem to solve after all.

In that case I think there's a niche for a Bitcoin specific credit card. The service would allow you to borrow dollars for an extremely short-term loan, which is immediately paid off with Bitcoin transactions. The CC company gives you the market exchange rate between Bitcoin and dollars (or your local currency), and keeps a small percentage for themselves. Of course it wrecks the decentralisation ideology that many people hold dear, but any non-monopoly has to demonstrate trustworthiness in order to gain support.

I agree. Regular merchants aren’t the way to go anyway, Bitcoin doesn’t offer much to them without a strong network effect.

There are people who benefit from or applications that CANNOT work without Bitcoin, we should look out for those.

Agree with BubbleBoy too. It’s wasted energy.