Figured that fancy POS system was a waste of money for my food truck but I was dead wrong

Last fall I finally broke down and bought a Square reader setup after three years of using a paper pad and a calculator. I thought it was just another way for the big companies to take a cut from small operations like mine. But after I lost two catering orders because my handwriting was impossible to read, I got sick of it. The thing tracked sales, inventory on buns and patties, and even showed me which days were dead slow. I spent $60 on the basic kit and it paid for itself within a month. Now I can actually tell if my brisket sandwich price is too high or if I need to buy more pickles. Has anyone else been burned by trusting old school methods over tech for too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

jones.angela3d ago

Honestly I see it the opposite way. "Trusting old school methods over tech for too long" - that's exactly what I did and it worked fine for years. I ran my hot dog cart with a spiral notebook and a hand tally counter for six years. That Square reader just feels like another middleman taking 2.6% of every sale. And when my wifi goes down at the farmers market I'm stuck there with a dead screen, counting change from a ziploc bag while people walk away. Paper never crashes and a calculator never needs to update its software.

emery_craig1d ago

Man, I feel you on that. The wifi thing is the killer - people just don't get what it's like when your whole setup dies because the signal drops. I've been there with a dead tablet at a craft fair, and you're totally right that paper and a simple calculator never have bad days like that. It's not about being a luddite, it's about knowing what actually works when things go sideways.