Do you use Square for more than occasional transactions?

December 1, 2012 9:54 PM

Do you have experience using the SquareUp register for a business that does a hundred or more transactions a day? Do you like it? Would you recommend any of the alternatives? Sail? Intuit?

I've been running a restaurant for 3 years now, and I'm sick of my point-of-sale software (FocusPOS) and I'm really sick of my credit card processor (who've been steadily adding new fees to my transactions and weirdo monthly service and convenience charges) which is now swallowing up 5% of my gross.

I'm been toying with the idea of using the Square register as I wouldn't mind replacing my hardware, and would save 2.25% of my gross by switching to their flat 2.75% rate.

However, everybody I've interacted with is only doing the Square app on an iPhone, and doing 6-10 transactions a day.

I have about 100 transactions a day, and really, really, really want to talk to somebody who's doing a heavy amount of transactions (and ideally, somebody with a reasonably complex menu) and get their feel for it.

However, most online reviews I've read smell like press releases or professional written astroturf from PR firms.

I'm hesitant to take the plunge without hearing somebody who's been through hell (or heaven) with the product first.

posted by The Giant Squid to Technology (7 answers total)

Response by poster: Also: We do a good swath of cash business. Any experience you can share with using a cash drawer with the app would be appreciated.
posted by The Giant Squid at 9:55 PM on December 1, 2012

Dogwood Coffee uses Square on an ipad for their coffee bar, and they've gotta do at least 100 transactions per day. You could send them an email (or hit up their twitter) and see if you can get a response if no one here has an answer for you.
posted by kavasa at 10:20 PM on December 1, 2012

HooDoo Brewing Company, a local brewery that just opened, is using Square and iPads (in custom? enclosures bolted to the bar top) to process all their orders. It seems to work great; they were packed Friday night, but there was no waiting and they seem to be able to deal with lots of customers. And their beer's great.

On the other hand, their current list of offering is slim: probably only 8 different options.

There's also a coffee shop in town that uses an iPad in a lucite enclosure for their register; I don't know if they're also using Square.
posted by leahwrenn at 10:36 PM on December 1, 2012

I just got square and I love it, but I don't do that many transactions per day.

The square directory is here. You could plug in your location and find out who in your town is using it that does a similar volume as you do, then go by and see it in action and talk to them about it.
posted by lunaazul at 10:50 PM on December 1, 2012

There are a bunch of food trucks outside my office every day, and they pretty much all use iPhones for their CC transactions. They definitely do a hundred transactions a day, but their menu is less complex than yours. I assume they are all using square, but I will double check on Monday if I remember.
posted by Joh at 12:39 AM on December 2, 2012

I frequent a cafe/bar that is using something on iPads (I assume Square but I don't know) for registers and they have a proper menu and must do 100+ transactions a day (I hope!). It's The Foundry, you could try contacting them.
posted by mskyle at 7:27 AM on December 2, 2012

A coffee shop here uses Square with an iPad in a stand that allows it to flip over so the customer can sign on the screen. It confuses the customer for about two seconds the first time they pay with a card, but after that it's very convenient and very fast. They also have it working with a cash drawer, which seems to work without a hitch (from a customer perspective at least). This is >100 transactions/day, but a menu of maybe 10-15 items.

And just to give you another lead, a restaurant/deli/retail establishment here with a very large menu, lots of orders and slightly complicated setup (iPads for orders, separate payment stations with touch screen registers, various ticket printers) just switched to Squirrel POS, and from just looking over their shoulder it seemed very nice. Doesn't help on the CC processor end though.
posted by kiltedtaco at 8:29 AM on December 2, 2012