[2014-07-14] Bitcoins and Gravy: Ohio's Bitcoin Boulevard!

[coinneo]

http://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/episode-24-ohios-bitcoin-boulevard

[Bit_Happy]

Congrats on the success of Bitcoin Boulevard.
Here is an idea:
Heinen's is an upscale grocery store chain based mostly in the Cleveland area.
http://www.heinens.com
Have you talked with them about possibly accepting BTC?

[coinneo]

Heinens would be great, and in fact we have already spoken with another grocery store in the area. But, we are still uncovering a lot of logistical issues for a store this size. There is simply not tight enough POS integration today to do this quickly and without development costs. Bitcoin revenues are so low right now, that investing in development is not something that has an ROI worth considering.

For instance, this issue also affects restaurants. Many of them use Micros POS systems. To even begin talking with Micros for a custom native integration is $15,000, and that does not include actually doing the work.

My hope is that the "bigs" (BitPay, Coinbase) will work with POS vendors to attain native integrations. Once this happens, it will be faaaar easier to approach larger organizations.

[Bit_Happy]

Heinens would be great, and in fact we have already spoken with another grocery store in the area. But, we are still uncovering a lot of logistical issues for a store this size. There is simply not tight enough POS integration today to do this quickly and without development costs. Bitcoin revenues are so low right now, that investing in development is not something that has an ROI worth considering.

For instance, this issue also affects restaurants. Many of them use Micros POS systems. To even begin talking with Micros for a custom native integration is $15,000, and that does not include actually doing the work.

My hope is that the "bigs" (BitPay, Coinbase) will work with POS vendors to attain native integrations. Once this happens, it will be faaaar easier to approach larger organizations.

Evolution takes time. Thanks for the updates and great work. 

[ThomasCrowne]

Heinens would be great, and in fact we have already spoken with another grocery store in the area. But, we are still uncovering a lot of logistical issues for a store this size. There is simply not tight enough POS integration today to do this quickly and without development costs. Bitcoin revenues are so low right now, that investing in development is not something that has an ROI worth considering.

For instance, this issue also affects restaurants. Many of them use Micros POS systems. To even begin talking with Micros for a custom native integration is $15,000, and that does not include actually doing the work.

My hope is that the "bigs" (BitPay, Coinbase) will work with POS vendors to attain native integrations. Once this happens, it will be faaaar easier to approach larger organizations.

I wonder how much work would be involved in taking one of the existing open-source POS systems (UniCenta or Softaculous for example) to incorporate crypto-payments?

[mercistheman]

Most POS systems have a key that can be mapped to enter a summary total for the day... or map a payment scan code ...
Most convenience stores are capable of accepting several forms of payments (some from other devices ).
Worse case is you do a simple journal entry to the corporate software system... if all goes well then you talk about real time integration to the POS device.
Start with the POS manufacturer... the accounting folks are used to creating new entries...
I'm sure this would not be difficult... don't let the front end store folks scare you away.

[counter]

http://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/episode-24-ohios-bitcoin-boulevard

I love these bitcoin boulevards!
They bring great consumer awareness and good practical use to the bitcoin ecosystem.

Every major city should have one!

Same hear, I'm going to give some serious thought to where would be a good place to propose such a place in my area.  There is no good reason this would not work and I'm mad at myself for not coming up with something similar to this idea till now..