Buying coffee, and giving up some privacy
Buying coffee, and giving up some privacy
- August 9, 2012
- Bill Maurer, anthropology professor and Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion director, is interviewed on Marketplace Tech August 9, 2012
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From Marketplace Tech:
Big advancements are being made to get lattes poured into your mouth faster. Starbucks
announced it will use the Square payment system for all credit and debit card transactions
starting this fall. Square is best known for little card readers that attach to phones
or tablets. But it goes beyond that. Starbucks wants to encourage use of Square's
app that lets customers pay for drinks without even taking their phone out of their
pockets, using a GPS system. Starbucks is counting on this to catch on, so much that
it's invested $25 million in Square. Bill Maurer runs the Institute for Money, Technology
and Financial Inclusion at U.C. Irvine. He says, "The problem that this solves for
Starbucks, I think, is that it moves people down the line more quickly. You've got
customers who are all basically ordering and buying the same kind of thing, you don't
have a lot of diversity of products. And for people who already have a Starbucks card,
it's going to add another dimension to their loyalty. It's a cool thing; it fits with
the kind of busy professional lifestyle and a certain kind of market niche."
For the full story, please visit http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/buying-coffee-and-giving-some-pri....
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