To pay for Burundian coffee and olive oil rosemary shortbread, customers of Blue Bottle, the small coffeehouse chain in California and New York, can now use Square.
Square, the mobile payments company that wants to abolish cash, lets anyone with a cellphone or tablet to accept credit cards. It also has a GPS-enabled app called Square Wallet, which lets customers pay by saying their names to a cashier, without even pulling out a card. Retailers can use Square Register to do things like print kitchen tickets and track inventory.
Square has three million individuals and businesses using it to accept payments, including Starbucks, and has earned a valuation from investors of $3.25 billion. Yet many businesses and shoppers have never heard of it, and its app for paying without showing a card has been slow to catch on.
The key to success for Square might be small chains like Blue Bottle. They multiply the revene of a single small, local business, and unlike large chains, they are more likely to tear out their existing point-of-sale systems and replace them with an iPad and a Square device.
Starbucks, for instance, began accepting payments using some Square services last year, but kept its point-of-sale system, so stores do not use the Square device.
Revenue from Square businesses with multiple accounts is seven times what it was six months ago, according to the company. Other small chains using Square include Pitango Gelato in the Washington, D.C., area, Amy’s Ice Creams in Austin and Cartel Coffee Lab in Arizona.
“We love seeing local businesses thrive to become national successes,†Jack Dorsey, Square’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.
Coffee shops like Blue Bottle have been formative fo! r Square’s business. Sightglass Coffee Roasters in San Francisco and Café Grumpy in New York have been testing grounds for Square’s products. Mr. Dorsey was an early investor in Sightglass.
Blue Bottle has 11 stores on both coasts. Square will start running in three of them Tuesday and the others in coming months.
The coffee company already has tech cred. Last fall, several of technology’s big names invested in the chain, including Kevin Systrom of Instagram, Kevin Rose of Digg and Google Ventures and Mike Volpi of Cisco and Index Ventures.
No word on how these small, specialty coffee chains feel about Square’s involvement with Starbucks, an archrival. (On Blue Bottle’s Web site, the company takes a jab at the giant chain, saying Blue Bottle’s founder “was weary of the grande eggnog latte and the double skim pumpkin-pie macchiato.â€)
James Freeman, the founde, said in a statement, “We think about the right wood for our counters, the best beans and how we can continue to serve our customers the perfect cup of coffee as we grow. Square’s attention to detail and focus on the customer makes Square Register the right choice for our business.â€
