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Why Most POS Systems Fail Coffee Shops

And what BeanPOS is doing about it.

“What is wrong with being the best coffee shop POS?”

It was a question that gutted me. We wanted to be generic, to sell to as many types of customers as possible.
My partner at the time, argued that it won’t scale. He was right.

But being right isn’t something I aspire to. Being right makes for safe, safe leads to generic, and that just isn’t something the world needs more of.

So many years later, free from previous restraints, free from having to do the right thing… I stood in front of a counter and started getting slowly annoyed as the barista was trying to ring up my coffee. Not their fault, it is just the problem with generic POS systems. You tap Cappuccino, it then pops up and says Cup Type, you tap Travel Mug. Then Size, right, Regular. Ok, making progress. Bean Type, Speciality or Decaf? Speciality. Milk type? Dairy as usual.

“Oh yeah, you get a discount for using your own mug, let me just change the price…”

Yay, he remembered today, I feel like I am winning. Here is the thing, I love my barista. I go there almost every day, I don’t really have to tell them what I want, he knows. I always take my travel mug. Some days I get a discount for trying to save the world of the threat of paper cups, sometimes he forgets. I am still helping, but it feels better when I get that little R2 off. I am a stupid person at best.