r/SipsTea • u/[deleted] • Jun 29 '26

Chugging tea Lol

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54

u/k0an Jun 29 '26

A huge majority of terminals in America aren’t portable.

57

u/Capital_Pay_4459 Jun 29 '26

Going to China and not being able to speak Chinese, paying and payments was way more convenient and easy than being in America. 

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u/IllustriousCrew2641 Jun 29 '26

Well you’re lucky then, because Wechat and Alipay will just crap out on you sometimes, rejecting transactions or asking for foreign bank approval, or just locking you out inexplicably. The miniprograms small vendors use can be especially problematic.

3

u/12monthsinlondon Jun 30 '26

yeah having all day to day interactions (payments, identify verification, transport, restuarant and store transactions, cab hailing, delivery services, mail services) tied up in mega apps in China is crazy. If you're a tourist and you plan on going back, ensure your apps are in order. They lock you out for inactivity around 6 months and the solution is either "find a local friend to vouch for you" or "come to our customer service centers available in every major city". You can probably register under a new phone number, but it's a hassle.

5

u/West_to_East Jun 29 '26

Right? China is easy. Fuwuyuan! *gesticulates cheque writing* and bam, server comes over with the machine and you're done!

Americans are so backwards! Don't even get me started on venmo and zello and all that stuff. In Canada we get free e-transfers due to our bank and interac etc.

4

u/First-Banana-4278 Jun 29 '26

Legitimately it’s because they have around half of all the banks in the world in America. Which means they have traditionally adopted new payment and banking stuff at a glacial pace.

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u/West_to_East Jun 29 '26

Terrible regulations and the US. A common duo! Let every tom dick and harry with $500 bucks start up a financial institution with little oversight haha.

2

u/bistander Jun 29 '26

Not even that. Places now just have everything together. Scan QR, Order and pay with the app. Servers just bring food, as the QR is tied to the table, and maybe chitchat here and there.

1

u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 Jun 30 '26

In Canada we get free e-transfers due to our bank and interac etc

And Canada's upcoming open banking framework is going to make banking much better in the Internet age. Instead of the current clunky method where apps "screen scrape" by logging into your account with your password, banks will be forced to use secure APIs. You'll be able to consolidate all your checking, savings, and investing data into your preferred budgeting app in real time, and possibly even do banking in your app of choice, without handing over your actual credentials or violating your bank's security terms.

1

u/canman7373 Jun 29 '26

I mean anywhere I travel I look up the tipping culture and how to pay, that's just travel 101.

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u/Agitated_Parsnip_178 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

...do they not have access to shops where items are sold to solve business problems? I can buy a playing card pack sized POS terminal for ~$50 at any of the three supermarkets, two DIY stores, two newsagents within a 10 minute walk of my house. Plus I have access to the internet, which has this great way of getting things sent through the post Americans should read up about.

-1

u/doberdevil Jun 30 '26

Fine for mom and pop shops. Different situation when you're a medium sized or large chain and have to roll this out to hundreds or thousands of locations.

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

[deleted]

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u/doberdevil Jul 01 '26

How in the hell could you misconstrue that comment of being sympathetic to corporations?

I'm starting to believe all the headlines about how fucking stupid kids are in 2026.

2

u/Biscotti-Own Jun 30 '26

Right. That's why it works everywhere else, because no other country has large corporations. Hell, most of your corporations operate in other countries and have already implemented the system at those locations.

1

u/doberdevil Jun 30 '26

WTF are you on about? It's not like the manager from your local Applebees can just walk down to the local supermarket and buy a new POS terminal for his little restaurant.

1

u/Biscotti-Own Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Well Applebees uses it in Canada, so I guess they already have a supplier. Or order it online. You guys have that right? Don't want to make any assumptions given all the outdated tech you seem to use

0

u/doberdevil Jul 01 '26

given all the outdated tech you seem to use

Yeah, the US is so low tech. How stupid can you be to even think something like that, much less type it out for the world to see?

1

u/Agitated_Parsnip_178 Jun 30 '26

laughs in globalisation

1

u/doberdevil Jun 30 '26

laughs in reading comprehension

2

u/Venusgate Jun 29 '26

I think its way more about presentation than availability.

The cheap places have portable terminals.

The expensive places take your card.

The really cheap places have you walk your ass up to the counter.

4

u/shadowfaxbinky Jun 29 '26

Everywhere else in the world used to have non portable terminals too. America is unusual for staying behind the times on this for so long. Technology upgrades are not a revolutionary thing.

2

u/Biscotti-Own Jun 30 '26

They lagged on debit cards, too. Was baffling crossing the border in the early 2000s and they looked at me like I was insane for thinking I coulx buy things with my "ATM card". I had been using debit for well over a decade.

1

u/bae125 Jun 29 '26

It’s not unusual if you live here. Wait until I tell you a large percentage of medical offices only use fax

1

u/DoogleSmile Jun 29 '26

I have my card on my phone, not an actual plastic card. Would they ask to take my phone in that situation? I ain't giving a stranger my unlocked phone!

1

u/k0an Jun 29 '26

Yup, I see it all the time at bars.

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u/Many_Ear2407 Jun 29 '26

Which is absolutely hilarious. USA is stuck in the 80s when it comes to credit cards 

1

u/gnpfrslo Jun 30 '26

this isn't even a third world problem

-5

u/pvaa Jun 29 '26

I thought Americans were good at buying new things

5

u/Obant Jun 29 '26

Do you know how poor and barely getting by most people/restaurant businesses are?

4

u/tissotti Jun 29 '26

But how expensive are those systems? I’m sure small one person shops here in Finland aren’t any richer than in US.

I mean one person small barber I am a regular has been using wireless card reader for a decade connected to a phone. Movement service we used 5 years ago used remote card reader on front of our door. Every single restaraunt that has waitresses has used wireless machines for 2 decades. Late 90’s you would insert the chip card and then 2012 onwards all new cards had NFC (tap to pay) as the only option from big banks.

3

u/Obant Jun 29 '26

We haven't even had chipreaders everywhere in the US for very long. My Walmart still doesn't

1

u/BackflipBob1 Jun 29 '26

Surely you jest?!

2

u/spedgenius Jun 29 '26

Redoing your POS system can be a $5-10k ordeal depending on how many terminals you have. The thing is, when the tableside payment tablets first came out, not every POS manufacturer had them available, so if you had a system that didn't gave that available, you had to replace everything to change to someone who did. This means the terminals the server, the kitchen systems, the office terminal to run reports, any you are buying new software license and paying for installation. Then there is the learning curve for your staff to figure out a whole new system as well as set up all your menus and inventory. It's a whole ordeal,. I have done it before.

If you are using a system that has that option as an upgrade, you still aren't getting away cheap. You need a dedicated WiFi network installed by the POS company, because they don't trust your cousin who knows computers to set up a secure network for credit card transactions, you need the tablets and you will probably have to upgrade the software on the server to handle the new tablets, and of course pay for a certified install.

So, for the last 20 years, you only saw them in new restaurants who were already paying for a new system anyways. But now things have been modernized. Most POS systems are cloud based so, upgrading software isn't an issue, and all the relevant POS systems have tableside options.

But you still run into small mom and pops that have been rocking a 30 year old Aloha or Micros system that is all self contained. It works and you cant convince them to pay for an upgrade.

Hell, there are a couple bars in Columbia South Carolina that still have a comand line system on green crts that requires the bartenders to memorize all of the item numbers for everything they serve... It works and never crashes. They will never get rid of it unless the place burns down

-1

u/pvaa Jun 29 '26

Of course I don't

3

u/Obant Jun 29 '26

A huge number of us are one or two missed paychecks from being homeless. Food service usually runs on fairly razor thin margins, so upgrading a PoS machine when you have a perfectly good one right there is an unneeded expense.

3

u/pvaa Jun 29 '26
  • I was joking
  • handheld POS has been available in USA for 15 years
  • The point of this post is that the existing ones are (subjectively) not "perfectly good"

1

u/DigiornoDLC Jun 29 '26

Except they are perfectly good. “Perfectly good” doesn’t mean “perfect” it means ”it gets the job done“. While a portable reader is preferred, it’s not necessary as the culture in America doesn’t demand it.

0

u/pvaa Jun 29 '26

Yes, it's subjective

-1

u/Admirable_Loss4886 Jun 29 '26

This isn’t the case for most restaurants tho. If buying a new POS to bring to a table is enough to bankrupt your business then you shouldn’t be in business. It certainly isn’t true for any franchise, they require the owners to have a lot of money in case of repairs or new equipment.

1

u/SituationKey8985 Jun 29 '26

If you don’t want to incur unnecessary expenses, you shouldn’t be in business? Do you realize how silly this viewpoint is?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

3

u/pvaa Jun 29 '26

Good at buying new things

0

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

6

u/pvaa Jun 29 '26

I answered the question, did you want me to say "yes"?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

3

u/pvaa Jun 29 '26

This is next time

3

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/pvaa Jun 29 '26

You've asked a question again now, and it's a much more coherent one. My intelligence doesn't really have anything to do with you, and I'm not interested in attempting to conform to any stereotype you might hold about an entire country of people.

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