Topic: Interesting conversation with a retailer who formerly accepted Bitcoin - page 8. (Read 20123 times)

Thank you sir!  (man i love the internetz)


I think that sums it up pretty damn succinctly.


I guess we'll hold off on banishing New Mexico Tea Company from the wiki LOL!

Thanks again for your perspective...if you end up experimenting with Bit-Pay, let us know how it goes.   

My name is David Edwards and I am the owner of New Mexico Tea Company. I was asked by SMTB1963 to respond to some of the discussion.


Thank you for coming in, I hope you are enjoying your tea!



Yes, but it wont! And if it does, I have a lot worse issues to deal with then buying more tea... like finding a bunker to hide in!


I am looking at it logically, and last year the potential gain did not out weight the risk. I saw within a few months bit coin go from $2 to $8 to $16 to $60 (!) and then back down to $8. I had people who wanted to buy tea when it was at $60, if I had done that then I would have lost a significant amount. I also did not want to keep flip flopping and accept them, then not accept them, then accept them again, so I decided to stop all together.

Maybe the system has calmed down now... I have not looked at it in about a year. So you can say... "well just sell all your bit coins for $60 when you take them for $60"... but I have other aspects of this business to run as well. I cant be monitoring bitcoin all day!


I used Mtgox and my bit coin last year, both got hacked right after I sold all my coins.



I am not running a speculative business, nor do I really have much interest in the nitty gritty of finance. I do like the idea of bitcoin as a marketing tool, which is why I experimented with it last year. At the time I made the determination that the extra rigamarole, and possibility of loosing money (Remember I have to buy the product your buying. I only have a certain margin to work with before im paying you to buy it!) was not worth the extra business that it was bringing in.

However, technology has moved on... I did not know about bit-pay, so maybe its time to take another look at it.

Thank you everyone for your input and thoughts on this.

While those points are by and large valid, nos. 2/3/4 essentially require a company to add a forex function to their operations.  For the vast majority of small businesses, there's simply no rationale to do so.  Even if they have the expertise, these guys just don't have the time.  IMO, the only reasonable option for NM Tea Co. - and indeed 99% of all small businesses - is Bit-Pay.  And not to nit-pick, but with Bit-Pay he would get $16.54 for his tea, not $17...correct?

David Edwards President, NM Tea Co. Inc. was once active on these forums.  Given his last activity here was April 2011, I doubt he's even aware of Bit-Pay.  In any case, it appears to me that he put some effort into getting bitcoin to work for his business.

I've sent an e-mail to the address in his profile asking him to share his thoughts/experiences on bitcoin...perhaps he'll respond.

 

I didn't say anything about intersango or Gox. Let's try again.
The "hoarding problem" is not really a problem as long as the exchanges are as easy to use as Bitfloor.
Bitfloor is EXTREMELY easy to use.
Person to person is fine, once there are enough people using it. But online exchanges are necessary to get to that stage.

the current  exchanges are anything but "easy to use "

intersango is fcked (cant get money in or out)  ,gox has got too much rules and regulations and delays   and i dont personally trust small exchanges with big transactions
so i would prefer  person to person trading ,face to face if necessary

No, I'd be thrilled to buy it with bitcoin and if I was dying to keep my investment 100% in bitcoins, I'd go home and buy more.

The "hoarding problem" is not really a problem as long as the exchanges are as easy to use as Bitfloor.

it's called "Gresham's Law"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law

Thank you for combating the groupthink that seems so prevalent on these forums.  It's nice to know there's at least a few who aren't in denial about the problems posed by exchange risk for merchants looking to accept BTC payments.

The good folks at Bit-Pay certainly recognize the problem, and recognize that there's money to be made in providing a solution.  I hope Bit-Pay (and others like them) get some traction in the marketplace...otherwise I fear BTC will continue to go nowhere fast.

1. Bit-Pay allows merchant to accept Bitcoin payments without any currency risk. If he wants $10 he gets $10 (minus a small fee).
2. Even if he doesn't want to rely on Bit-Pay, why does he have to wait until tomorrow? He can sell any received bitcoins instantly via an API. He doesn't even need to wait for the coins to clear into the exchange, he can operate with a reserve, or sell short.
3. Was he just scared about volatility, or was he ever actually harmed by it? If he kept it going I doubt he would have any significant losses due to volatility, even without doing anything to protect from it.

You're being awfully negative. Accepting bitcoins is awesome for people who want bitcoins but is also great for people who don't.

Businesses strive to minimize risks. Even if his expected profit/loss from volatility is 0 it creates variance which is bad. The concern is legitimate, his decision is not.

A merchant's speculative position on BTC doesn't have anything to do with whether he should accept Bitcoin payments. He could accept Bitcoin because it's cheaper while going short because he thinks the price will go down, or he can take a long position because he thinks the price will go up but not accept them because it's not worth the hassle.

I want some of the 21 million, but I also want to be able to use them, merchants accepting bitcoins is vital and the more there are the better.

I have tried to get people to accept it but they also think its overly complicacted, cumbersome and hard to manage and risky 
( all of which any new payment would have anyway )

the one person i know who does accept bitcoins is only accepting them as an "investment" (he knows they will be worth more in 5 -10 years than now )but not as a currency

this is another problem ,everybody cant just hoard coins hoping the value goes up  ,as addictive as it might be 

they have to be traded constantly and thats just not happening enough ,its been said before but if you had a 5 dollar note and a bitcoin in your pocket you would buy your  lunch with the 5 dollar note

the bitcoin needs spendability,outside of silkroad and tax evasion if its ever going to fulfill its potential as a  serious currency 

This is a terrible way to think about it. If you do not address the issues merchants are seeing then it will be very hard for Bitcoin to have the wider adoption many hope for. Exchange risk *is* a real concern and you should not shrug it off. Instead we should think about how we can work with merchants and help them understand and manage this risk or even turn it into a non risk.

If you want Bitcoins to matter beyond a tiny sphere, then you have to be ready to solve the problems others are having and not just think about yourself.

Show him Bit-Pay. The volatility shouldn't affect him, then

There will be 21 million ever and he doesn't want any, better that other people have them then, nice of him to get out of the way.

Also the value could double as easily as halve and if he thinks otherwise he has a worse opinion of the value than average and obviosly should not accept it in his store.

The guy wants dollars, let him have dollars. Accepting bitcoins is awesome for people who want bitcoins. If for some reason customers really want to spend bitcoins and you want dollars use bit-pay or similar to avoid volatility and losing sales.

The rebuttal would be that the dollar could also be worth 50% less the next day.

I just visited NM Tea Company in Albuquerque, NM. I chose this particular tea store specifically because I found him listed as accepting Bitcoin and I want to support the Bitcoin community. However, when I inquired about it, the owner stated that he no longer accepts Bitcoin because, while the idea and principles are great, the volatility scared him. He explained that if he sold 2BTC worth of tea today, which might equal $17, it could be worth only $8 tomorrow which would cause him to have lost roughly 50% of his revenue from the sale.

I'm not versed enough the retail aspects of Bitcoin so I didn't have a rebuttal. I am interested in what this community has to say about his concerns, which can help me to engage next time.

Thanks.