[dpark]

> If a restaurant's going to go to all the trouble to install a system like this and set it up so that my phone can pay them, why couldn't I just order on the phone? Then I wouldn't have to stand in line at all, and they won't have wasted their time if it turns out that I want something else instead of what I usually get.

Because a smooth face to face interaction is much more pleasant than ordering via an online application. "Half-caff mocha, large, with extra whip cream" vs "open web site, look for mocha, select size, special request... extra whip cream, agree to pay..., submit". That's a crappy experience. The online order only makes sense if the face-to-face experience sucks worse, which shouldn't be the case.

Also because this system doesn't require you to get out your phone every time. Just once, and then it works transparently.

[vidarh]

I agree with you about the face to face interaction - the people I see in shops at a daily basis generally know what I want, and just asks me to confirm, and we can spend that 30 second face to face time exchanging a few comments about other things instead.

And that is the thing I loved the most about this concept. It is one of very few recent technological innovations that actually enhances face to face social interactions.

By requiring you to tell your name, you now have an "excuse" to introduce yourself and get on a name basis with people you often see day out and day in but who most people might otherwise have a very impersonal contact with.

Just try giving shop assistants eye contact. Most places they're not used to people even looking them in the eye, and the entire quality of your experience and interaction with them go up tenfold if you make sure to make eye contact and smile. But we tend to mumble down into our wallets stuck in our own worlds and ignore that there's a human on the other side of the till. I used to do that as I'm strongly introverted normally, but a few years back I started forcing myself to focus on peoples faces whenever I pay, or enter the bus or whatever type of transaction it is, and it makes such a difference in overall degree of human contact (and it makes the response you get from the other person dramatically more friendly)

As an example, there's a bus driver who frequently drives my local bus, that I've gone to the same gym as for more than 5 years. I never even recognized him until I decided to start focusing on giving more eye contact. Now we greet each other warmly and talk whenever we see each other.

I thought this was "just me" before I took action to change it, but the more I did it the more I saw how taken aback a lot of the people I did it to were, and how out of their way a lot of people I'd give eye contact would go to do things for me - as it turns out even otherwise very social people often completely blank people in these situations. We "switch off" socially in large number of situations.

I think Square could have the potential to be far more important to the world for its possibility of disrupting social interactions than its mere impact on commerce...

[wanorris]

Ordering a saved pizza order that we order frequently at Papa John's is incredibly easy -- certainly way easier than telling the order to someone.

I suppose it's possible that coffee is different in some non-obvious way, but I'm not sure how.

[dpark]

Pizza's different because it takes 15 minutes for them to make it. It's not really a choice of going to the store to order vs using an online form. It's a choice between calling and using an online form. Calling is already fairly impersonal, and on top of that you normally end up on hold, then you have to read them your credit card number, etc. Online ordering can indeed be less hassle than calling in an order (at least after the initial hassle of setting up an account).

Let's also not forget that Square is presumably not just targeting coffee shops and restaurants with this. You can take a sweater to the register and pay with card case.

[vidarh]

Some of the places I order, they get my stuff ready when they see me walk through the door. Much more convenient for me than having to fiddle with an ordering system even if there's a saved order I can repeat.