Centurylink Field Is Now Cashless.

[bigskydoc]

Cards? Who uses cards anymore? Hopefully they are set up for mobile payments.

Next phase a micro chip in your hand.

This forces you into a data base to track your spending by the cards if your into that sort of thing.

If you don't want your spending tracked, there are always prepaid cards. The kiosks at the stadium don't charge transaction fees.

http://www.centurylinkfield.com/cashless/

With no transaction fees, I predict a fairly robust secondary market for these cards.

 

[Nunya]

Once heard a story about a guy that was mugged at a football stadium. The thief took his hot dog and soda, but did not even bother with his wallet.

 

[Tsixx]

I tried paying for something with a $100 bill the other day and the cashier looked at me like I had a gun in my hand

 

[Sac]

Im married, and cashless also

HAHAHA

 

[brimsalabim]

I'm sure this move will certainly boost tax collections.

 

[RolandDeschain]

I'd say about once per year I have to use cash someplace because their POS system isn't working. It's rare, but it happens. I always keep some cash in my wallet as an emergency backup. Seems stupid not to, IMO.

 

[RolandDeschain]

It's been years since I was at AWS, but I am comfortably certain that the only private connectivity between AWS regions is for their inter-region S3 data transfer service and Cloudfront, meaning you are mainly just testing the performance of the open internet. Pings alone are pointless without bidirectional traceroute results. I'm unsure what application you are running that depends on reliable, low latency, intercontinental connectivity over the open internet, but if it's something people depend upon to make money, they're going to have a bad time. Just ask my previous employer, who quite literally tanked because they thought it would be fine to just use the Internet to backhaul critical, latency-sensitive data from the far reaching corners of the globe, to their Hadoop cluster in a Tukwila datacenter.

AWS was never designed for inter-regional network performance. If that's what you're trying to do, you're doing it wrong. The "proper" way to do a regional architecture in AWS is through creating environments in each region you're active, and steering traffic to them through an anycast DNS service. They do it that way in AWS, because it's the way Amazon has done it, for their own purposes, for the past 15 years or so.

The cloud is cheaper for small environments that can't justify the cost of an edge presence at an Equinix or InterXion facility. The downside is that, indeed, the cloud is someone else's computer, and you better believe your data is not safe from the prying eyes of corporate and government spies both foreign and domestic.

You're saying traffic between internal VPCs you've setup in say, Oregon and London, is a tunnel over the public Internet? I find that hard to believe. I would think AWS pays for their own transatlantic fiber access to push that traffic over, no? Also, the screenshot I posted is just some of the testing. The raw throughput GCP can push is so far beyond what I can push from any EC2 instance though, it's ridiculous.

 

[Chapow]

I'd say about once per year I have to use cash someplace because their POS system isn't working. It's rare, but it happens. I always keep some cash in my wallet as an emergency backup. Seems stupid not to, IMO.

Yep. I always have cash in my wallet as well, both as an emergency backup and because there are still some businesses that are cash only. For example, my regular barber shop and backup barber shop are both cash only.

I also like having the option of being to throw some cash down on the table at a bar or restaurant and being on my way instead of having to wait for the server to grab my card, ring it up, and then bring my card back.

 

[ZagHawk]

I am generally cashless BUT my issue is how pathetic the ticketless entry thing worked out. Lines were TERRIBLE. So the implementation of this is going to also be rough for a while. They want efficient concessions, maybe more organization on food and having supply ready for half time. I can’t tell you how often I saw people waiting for something then someone comes in and buys it right as it was ready and they got it handed to them first. that’s the real issue slowing down concessions not cash.

 

[RolandDeschain]

I'd say about once per year I have to use cash someplace because their POS system isn't working. It's rare, but it happens. I always keep some cash in my wallet as an emergency backup. Seems stupid not to, IMO.

Yep. I always have cash in my wallet as well, both as an emergency backup and because there are still some businesses that are cash only. For example, my regular barber shop and backup barber shop are both cash only.

I also like having the option of being to throw some cash down on the table at a bar or restaurant and being on my way instead of having to wait for the server to grab my card, ring it up, and then bring my card back.

I also do this once in a great while if someone I'm at a restaurant or bar with leaves a crappy tip; I'll toss a few extra bucks on the table if I think the service warranted it.

Anyone who says cash isn't needed at all anymore...well, it is; just not commonly, and rather situationally.

 

[Rule]

always gotta keep cash on hand for weed!

 

[chris98251]

It takes longer to use a card then to hand them a 20 and have them count back a dollar and some change, problem I see is most cashiers don't have the skills to do the math or even look at the registers and count it these days so it takes longer. To many need to have a calculator to do basic skills.

Insert card, have cashier hit their button, you have to enter a pin or if credit have it processed and enter a zip, card has to be approved you wait and wait sometimes, cashier has to see approval, then hand you your merchandise and receipt if you wish, many don't even ask if you want it and you have to ask them.

 

[oldhawkfan]

At first glance at this thread title I thought they changed the name of the stadium! :roll: :lol:

 

[SEAHAWKBLITZ]

It's not the payment method that slows things down. Its the people behind the counter. And if someone orders a beer, they still have to dig in their wallet and get their id out regardless of how old they are.

Last time I braved the concessions at a game was when my girlfriend wanted pepperoni pizza. I walked up to pizza hut just as the last one was pulled off the shelf (there were at least a dozen cheese pizzas left) told them I'd wait, after waiting nearly half an hour, and missing half the third quarter I was finally presented with a box. I grabbed it and hustled back to my seats only to watch her unbox a cheese pizza. She still swears I did it on purpose, haha. Now I make sure eat enough before the game and skip the concessions all together. Tailgating food is way better and way cheaper anyway!!

 

[bigskydoc]

As pointed out in the thread, payment processing, be it cash, card, or mobile, isn't the thing that delays concessions. There are a lot of benefits to going cashless, but all of those benefits are for the retailer. They have to balance loss of sales, to customers who only bring cash, against these benefits.

If throughput is the goal, then they need to work to eliminate the bottlenecks. Ordering is probably the biggest bottleneck because, no matter how limited you make the menu, you will always have the customers that bog the entire system down, by waiting until they are at the register to figure out their order.

You may have 10 people in line who have their order completely figured out, but there will always be that one moron that gets to the register, and then calls to get orders from his buddies who are in the restroom or in their seats. Then there is the other moron who just can't bothered to read the board, and decide, until he is at the register.

Mobile and/or kiosk ordering, a la Panera, solves this issue. By the time I arrive at Panera, I have my order ready to go, I just need to select a table, enter it into the app, and submit. (I still don't understand why I can't submit the order before I get there, then append a table number after I arrive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) The ordering line is reserved for the clueless and the technophobes.

I love Roland's idea of mobile ordering from your seat, then notifying you when it is almost done. Of course, you will have the people who will order from the wrong concessions stand if you do this. You can certainly reduce error by starting the ordering process by asking for your location, then listing concessions by distance from that location.

 

[Chapow]

It takes longer to use a card then to hand them a 20 and have them count back a dollar and some change...

This has definitely NOT been my experience.

...problem I see is most cashiers don't have the skills to do the math or even look at the registers and count it these days so it takes longer. To many need to have a calculator to do basic skills.

Insert card, have cashier hit their button, you have to enter a pin or if credit have it processed and enter a zip, card has to be approved you wait and wait sometimes, cashier has to see approval, then hand you your merchandise and receipt if you wish, many don't even ask if you want it and you have to ask them.

That whole process takes less than 30 seconds if the system is functioning properly.

 

[KiwiHawk]

You guys are nuts. I almost never carry cash anymore.

I sometimes have some on me but I never tend to use it. It takes longer, and then I end up with change. And if I use that change, it will take even longer next time.

It's entertaining watching people rage against card only when I get pissy because some place is cash only.

Do you spend much time out of Auckland? When I was there last year I didn't have any issues but when I went to Wellington last year it seemed too easy to find places that would only take cash.

I moved here in 2003 and spent a couple of years in Palmerston North before moving to Auckland. I work for a Wellington-based company that supports software programmed in Napier, my best mate lives in Nelson, and my wife's olds live in Tauranga, so I do get out of Auckland quite a bit to those various places.

Still, I almost never carry cash, and when I do it seems my wife or daughter need it for something so it goes away. My first real need for cash, probably since I've been here, was this morning when my daughter needed cash to pay her for her Aikido class.

The middle console of my car is my change dump. I probably have $20 worth of coins in there. I use coins even less often than I use cash.

 

[SantaClaraHawk]

I can only imagine how well this will work out the first time they have a POS system or network crash, lol.

Did you think if they used cash you got a hand written receipt?

Who cares about getting a receipt for a couple beers and some nachos at an NFL game? Mobile ordering where you order on your phone and enter your seat number, and it tells you which window (near your seat location) to run up to so you can just grab your stuff and run back to your seat is what every stadium should have already.

Roland, you said yourself that AWS specifically does not save money. I'll go one farther and say that "cloud" platforms, even as broadly defined and analog a credit-card platform is--are intended explicitly to get more money out of customers.

If you are using a debit or prepaid, you are not under the Fair Credit and Reporting Act of 1973. That means that you can't appeal if a vendor takes $800 out of your DC for beer and nachos, where you can for a CC.

Not everyone has credit cards, not everyone wants credit cards, and certainly they should not be a prerequisite to your spending your money safely.

 

[therealjohncarlson]

I'd say about once per year I have to use cash someplace because their POS system isn't working. It's rare, but it happens. I always keep some cash in my wallet as an emergency backup. Seems stupid not to, IMO.

I'd say about 5 times at a Chipotle near me their system has been down so they give me the meal free. Sometimes it pays not to carry cash

 

[RolandDeschain]

I'd say about once per year I have to use cash someplace because their POS system isn't working. It's rare, but it happens. I always keep some cash in my wallet as an emergency backup. Seems stupid not to, IMO.

I'd say about 5 times at a Chipotle near me their system has been down so they give me the meal free. Sometimes it pays not to carry cash

I'd say it's risky eating at Chipotle that frequently, considering their propensity for E. coli, salmonella, and norovirus over and over again.