electroSurveil

Including eat or breathe.

I feel weird spending at places like this at all. Not just because of what it does to other people, but also how it modifies my own behavior. What if it had been me? I can't leave the house with just a twenty in my pocket? That's not good enough?

I have to stop, wait, find my wallet, make sure it has a card with a balance on it, know what that balance is, make sure the card isn't damaged (demagnetized, scuffed chip contacts, curled up in the heat of the clothes drier), and if I don't have this singleton plastic token that I cannot easily replace or trade, I can't go to certain places?

Just because your cash register is an iPad, doesn't mean you can't handle real money too. What's really going on? Why would a restaurant prefer anything over cash? In my experience, food service normally loves cash, because they can report it differently. Tips are quasi-off-the-books, within a certain margin. So there must be some kind of motive to hook into a payment provider.

If farmers markets, bake sales and lemonade stands can handle a simple cash box, any restaurant certainly can.

But really, we know Dos Toros is a franchise with more than just an iPad for a register, so for sure they're doing something with customer data behind the scenes. Although how much is that worth to a burrito joint? Perhaps it's free payment processing in exchange for exclusive cashless operations plus a data agreement.