Sandwich chain doing its part to destroy the wallet industry

By adamg on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 8:38am

Street Fight interviews Mike Conley, director of marketing at Sebastians Cafe, which now has 2,200 people signed up for its phone-based payment and loyalty programs - customers use their phones rather than old-fashioned cash or credit cards to pay for lunch. Naturally, the chain started with its Kendall Square location first.

It's just an easier, great way to pay. I forgot my wallet one day, going into a meeting, and I was like: "Oh, crap. I can't pay for food. Oh, wait a minute. I have my phone. I have LevelUp." It's interesting that everyone is starting to realize how this is a very usable tool for payments.

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Comments

Anyone use?

By Lunchbox on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 9:13am.

I've seen the signs for this at restaurants here and there. Anyone use this service? Any thoughts?

I use it. I don't have a

By j_french on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 9:38am.

I use it. I don't have a smart phone, so I use their card. It has a code on it that they scan.

It's great because these places offer discounts when you use the levelup system. Sometimes they will have a promotion where the discount means a free meal.

Except I forget a lot of times that places use it, and I won't notice the levelup decal until I am leaving.

merci

By Lunchbox on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 9:42am.

Thanks. I like the card idea, I'm afraid I'd look like a d-bag pulling out my phone to pay for a chicken parm.

That's not the d-bag move

By rsybuchanan on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 9:57am.

Using the app isn't the problem. The d-bag move is when someone knows they're going to use the app to pay, but wait until the clerk has rung up their purchase and told them what they owe to fish their phone out of their pocket or bag and start firing up the app. Even if it only adds a few seconds (and my estimate, having used LevelUp for a few months now, is that it probably would add half a minute total), it seems like an eternity to all the very important people behind them in line.

Not just phones...

By anon on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 10:47am.

The d-bag move doesn't just apply to phones. On a constant basis I have noticed that people waiting in line to pay for something, be it at lunch or in a CVS or whatever, wait until the milisecond they get to the checkout and then spend hours digging through bags, purses and parcels to procure their method of payment. This douchebaggery holds up the entire line. It is only common sense that since you have all this time waiting in line you might as well use it to find your cash or card and have it in your hand by the time you get to the checkout. And, this is in no way a sexist remark, but pure observation shows me that 99% of the time it is women who do this. Perhaps it is because of where women keep their money or card, whereas men usually use wallet or pocket. The followup to this is that once the purchase is made, they still stand at the counter blocking everyone else while they gather up all their accoutrements, put cards back in purses, etc. It would be so easy to step aside and do it. It isn't always entitlement that makes people do this either. Sometimes they seem genuinely oblivious that there is a more efficient way.

Even worse is being in line

By anon on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 4:20pm.

Even worse is being in line to board a bus. You would think that in the time one is standing at the bus stop waiting for a bus they would have their money in hand. But no they have to wait till they get on the bus, dig through their purse (yes, it's usually women) and to make matters worse instead of putting in a dollar and 2 quarters, I swear some of these people are putting in one nickel at a time. A don't get me started on those who insisted on refilling their Charlie card on the bus.

I've used it several times

By BrightonResident on Fri, 02/03/2012 - 12:37pm.

I have an account on Level Up, and like J_French, I don't have an iPhone--I also use the card which they will mail to you. I've used the service at a few places--Sel de la Terre, Bon Me, Cafe Brazil, Local 149, Saus--mostly restaurants.

Here's a link where you can sign up for it and then we both get $5 of free money: https://www.thelevelup.com/join/6112

Can you link to the interview?

By Ron Newman on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 9:18am.

Misleading text, Adam

By Kaz on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 10:08am.

Your write-up is very misleading.

LevelUp is NOT Sebastians Cafe's phone-based payment system. It's SCVNGR's, Sebastians is just one of their many area clients.

SCVNGR is a Cambridge-based phone app developer who started a social check-in app/game similar to 4Square that allowed you to earn rewards on top of letting your friends (and their databases) know where you frequent. They started LevelUp almost a year ago because going toe-to-toe with 4Square wasn't challenging enough, they wanted to take on Groupon too. They have a pretty good presence in a number of Watertown restaurants that I've been in recently in Watertown.

Basically, you sign up and attach your billing info to a system-generated QR barcode that will appear on your smartphone screen or on a card for your wallet that they'll send you if you need it. The store has its own smartphone in place with a camera that will scan your QR code and bill you for the meal along with whatever percent amount of tip you want to add to the bill (automatically calculated for you) at the time you are scanned. You get freebies for the first time at places, and then you can earn freebies for the same place by being a return customer too.

But the idea and implementation is entirely SCVNGR. They then find clients like Sebastians, Wild Willy's Burgers, Matilda's, and others all over the area (as well as Philly, San Fran, and NYC so far) who are willing to sign up and put the phone/display on their counter next to the register in order to take LevelUp payments.

Hmm ...

By adamg on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 10:13am.

I'm just going by what the guy said in the interview (which, yes, I managed to not link to in the original post) - he goes on and on about LevelUp and doesn't once mention SCVNGR (which has a link to its "LevelUp pilot" right at the top of its home page).

Yeah, I see that

By Kaz on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 10:43am.

I would say even in the interview he talks about how LevelUp "came to him". But when I read your synopsis above it sounds more like Sebastians somehow owns LevelUp or created it (with "2,200 people signed up for its..." and the headline "Sandwich chain doing its part to destroy the wallet industry" when it's really LevelUp that's doing the destroying by signing places like Sebastians up for its service). What it really means is that 2,200 LevelUp users have used their LevelUp account at Sebastians at least once.

They way it reads to me above, it'd be like saying "400,000 people have used Sebastians' flyer miles rewards program, American Express".

I agree that the interview sort-of blurs that line a bit too since the interviewer was going to Sebastians to ask about how LevelUp has worked for them and doesn't itself mention the appropriate background on LevelUp either.

fee anecdote

By anon on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 10:25am.

I asked a different lunchtime takeout restaurant owner in Kendall which payment option he prefer I use. Based on fees, he preferred payment in the following rank order: