Mobile payments have arrived at Starbucks

Posted on Jan 19, 2011 in Mobile, Social Media, Tech & Gadgets

Early this month, I blogged about how your mobile phone will soon replace credit cards and it looks like that time has arrived. Starbucks announced this week that their customers will now be able to pay for coffee with their cellphones instead of pulling out cash or a credit card.

How does it work? All you need is a BlackBerry or an iPhone (sorry Android users) and download the free Starbucks Card app. To pay for your coffee, simply hold your phone in front of the scanner at Starbucks cash registers. The money is subtracted from your Starbucks account, which you can load with credit cards or through PayPal funds.

In my opinion, I think this is the future of how we will interact at the cash register – by waving your mobile phone. What do you think of mobile payments?

via The New York Times

Blog #18 of 365.

  • http://www.atlantajones.com Andrew Jones

    Their site makes it sound like this is up and running at all stores. Wonder if that’s really the case.

  • http://twitter.com/LaurenMullins Lauren Mullins

    I paid for my coffee with my phone this morning! :)

    You can use the app to identify which stores accept mobile payments. It appears that most stores in Atlanta are accepting it as of right now.

    I went in to get coffee this morning with only my phone and car keys in hand, so I was completely relying on my Starbucks to accept the mobile payment problem free. Overall, it worked really well. There were no problems with the scanner reading the screen of my iPhone 4. (I’ve heard other stories where scanners can’t read the iPhone 4 Retina display.)

    The only hold up I experienced was that I was probably the first person to attempt mobile payment at the Howell Mill Rd Starbucks. They had the scanner set up on the cashier side of the counter, and at first the cashier asked me to hand over my phone. The manager quickly stepped in and said liability issues prevent them from being allowed to touch a customer’s phone. The cashier had to pick up the scanner and finagle the cord so that she could reach my phone.

    It seems to me that setting up the scanner so that the customer could scan his or her own phone would be much better practice. Plus, it seems like Starbucks could better advertise the program this way.

    That’s my story. :)

  • http://welcometojmart.com/ Josh Martin

    Wow, thanks for sharing! It looks like they’ve rolled it out to most stores in the US. Will be interesting to see how many people use this new way to pay. I’m sure there will be a learning curve for employees, especially not touching / handling customer’s phones.

  • http://welcometojmart.com/ Josh Martin

    Looks like it’s up and running based on Lauren’s comment.

  • http://twitter.com/LaurenMullins Lauren Mullins

    Starbucks piloted the program at Starbucks locations located inside Target stores. Since they decided to roll it out to Starbucks stores across the country, I would assume that it was pretty successful at Target locations.

    I think the program will be pretty successful. Granted, I drink more coffee than any normal human ever should, but Starbucks has built a great loyalty program. I never pay with traditional methods at Starbucks anymore, only by Starbucks Card.