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MCX CEO Out After Best Buy Begins Accepting Apple Pay

farewelwilliams said:
"tremendous opportunity for consumers"

what?
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You totally missed the real beginning of the quote.

"MCX was created to capitalize on a tremendous opportunity for consumers..."

Therein lies the problem. As Tim Cook stated on the :apple:Pay keynote, these companies are there to capitalize, not fix a systemic problem or further streamline efforts in the retail payment process.
 
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ZCT said:
Only if you assume your waiter to be a tax cheat, and thus you are helping enable his illegal behavior. :eek:

That said, it is disgusting to me that any server be required to pay tax on their tips. It was after all a gift from patron to server, it was not a guaranteed wage.
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Not technically a gift. It's a payment for services rendered (based on quality). Sort of like a free lancer of a given industry. Free lancers still have to declare their income.

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tasset said:
In agreement with your first comment. On the second though, what I find disgusting is that it is legal for servers to be paid UNDER minimum wage at Sonic, IHOP, etc in expectation their tips make up for the shortfall. In essence subsidizing the company. THAT is the abuse that should be broken more than the tax code.
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Tax code needs ditched. Either flat tax or a consumption tax needs looked at. But then guaranteed tax revenue from the middle class and wealthy (yes, they pay a large amount of taxes regardless of what your poli-science professor says) would go away and be based on current economics... not good for political contributions if you can't get a kickback from the sitting senator eh (if consumption tax)? ;)
 
MCX is terrible. The whole barcode thing is just stupid. I don't want to have to fish for apps to pay for something.
 
Smith288 said:
Not technically a gift. It's a payment for services rendered (based on quality). Sort of like a free lancer of a given industry. Free lancers still have to declare their income.
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I disagree.

If I have a contractor come over and trim the trees in my yard, he bills me $900 and I refuse to pay for no good reason he can sue me, put a lien on my property, and so on.

If I walk out of a restaurant without leaving a tip there are no legal ramifications whatsoever.

A tip is a moral obligation, but not a legal one. And frankly it's only been made a moral obligation after prohibition ended and restaurants started encouraging patrons to subsidize their workers wages in a way that has become accepted in America these days.

In many other countries workers are fairly compensated for their work, and patrons are not expected, and in fact are discouraged from leaving tips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_vivC7c_1k

Here is the explanation in video form ;)
 
BS Translator. Just input three (3) keywords, and the BS translator will interpret.

INPUT: Tremendous - Opportunity - Consumers

OUTPUT: Merchants will have a finger on the pulse of the individual consumer and will be able to target ads, sales, promotions, and more importantly, have a huge database of individual's buying habits and patterns, which will become very lucrative and a way to attract more companies into signing with CurrentC. If a potential bankruptcy is on the horizon, selling this data or including it as part of the bankruptcy could be very valuable to our bond holders.
 
ZCT said:
I disagree.

If I have a contractor come over and trim the trees in my yard, he bills me $900 and I refuse to pay for no good reason he can sue me, put a lien on my property, and so on.

If I walk out of a restaurant without leaving a tip there are no legal ramifications whatsoever.

A tip is a moral obligation, but not a legal one. And frankly it's only been made a moral obligation after prohibition ended and restaurants started encouraging patrons to subsidize their workers wages in a way that has become accepted in America these days.

In many other countries workers are fairly compensated for their work, and patrons are not expected, and in fact are discouraged from leaving tips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_vivC7c_1k

Here is the explanation in video form ;)
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Don't bother trying to use reason with this one, the poster’s avatar tells me all I need to know. Flat and/or consumption taxes on the bottom 65% is a quick way to incite a revolution where everyone loses. Nevermind fixing real issues like letting businesses play fast and loose with wages as we’re discussing.
 
ZCT said:
I disagree.

If I have a contractor come over and trim the trees in my yard, he bills me $900 and I refuse to pay for no good reason he can sue me, put a lien on my property, and so on.

If I walk out of a restaurant without leaving a tip there are no legal ramifications whatsoever.

A tip is a moral obligation, but not a legal one. And frankly it's only been made a moral obligation after prohibition ended and restaurants started encouraging patrons to subsidize their workers wages in a way that has become accepted in America these days.

In many other countries workers are fairly compensated for their work, and patrons are not expected, and in fact are discouraged from leaving tips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_vivC7c_1k

Here is the explanation in video form ;)
Click to expand...

in some cultures it's an insult to tip.

went to Japan and first thign I did was stop in a Ramen shop when I got there. I got this giant (head sized) bowl of ramen that cost me 200yen ($2). The server was polite, amazing and did a tremendous job making me feel welcome despite the language barrier.

SO I gave him $5 tip (500 yen). as I was leaving the store and met with my friend who i was visiting, He came out of the store after me, head bowed, but forcably handing me back the tip money.

my friend had to explain to me that to many in Japan, a tip is almost an insult. they believe that the price that is set is fair, and that paying above and beyond means you think down on them or of them as poor and not pridefull (or something to that extent).

its a very western culture belief that income of services should be subsidized by tips. in some places, Tipping is an expectation. here they now expect 20%
 
CE3 said:
And that's fine, but I'm not concerned with what works best a couple years from now, I want what works now. I feel like if Apple acquired a company to allow its service to use both NFC & MST, and Apple Pay was able to launch with over 90% of the retailers in the U.S. able to accept it, a lot of people would be hailing the move as brilliant.
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Retailers will assume all fraud liability after October 2015 if they do not upgrade to more secure payment methods, thus MST is already obsolete.
 
So currentC is based on the old ACH method of payment. This is troubling as it leaves you the consumer with no form of recourse for errors. If they had gone the way of the paypal where there was a middle man that was funded maybe, but they know people are not going to fund an account just to shop with there phone.

This is all to cut the 2% charge fee out. I get it. They also pay some sort of fee on cash transfers to loomins.

that 2% pays to protect the consumer and make them feel comfortable spending money most of the time money they don't have.

with currentC if you don't have the cash you can not shop. This just never made sense to me most of america is run on credit buying what we can not afford who would setup a whole system where there is no credit and only those with money on hand could buy. This severely limits the customers for this payment method.

I know all of us here pay our CC off monthly but not every on in america does. What super rich person thought this up.
 
sziehr said:
So currentC is based on the old ACH method of payment. This is troubling as it leaves you the consumer with no form of recourse for errors. If they had gone the way of the paypal where there was a middle man that was funded maybe, but they know people are not going to fund an account just to shop with there phone.

This is all to cut the 2% charge fee out. I get it. They also pay some sort of fee on cash transfers to loomins.

that 2% pays to protect the consumer and make them feel comfortable spending money most of the time money they don't have.

with currentC if you don't have the cash you can not shop. This just never made sense to me most of america is run on credit buying what we can not afford who would setup a whole system where there is no credit and only those with money on hand could buy. This severely limits the customers for this payment method.

I know all of us here pay our CC off monthly but not every on in america does. What super rich person thought this up.
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I know a fair number of people whose primary means of payment is via debit card (which generally requires the cash to be available). It's not that uncommon, especially among the younger crowd.

Anyway, the motivation for CurrentC isn't really to avoid card fees. Debit cards aren't subject to the same interchange rates as credit cards if they're from large enough banks; fees for those are capped at something like 0.05%, vs 2-3% for credit cards. It would have been a lot easier for Walmart to just stop accepting credit cards and only accept debit and cash if that was the only reason.

No, the real reason is that it opens the door for data mining across multiple stores. Stores can already data mine based on their currently existing loyalty programs but those just produce shopping data from their own stores. With CurrentC, you now have shopping data from multiple stores for individual people. A simple example: last night you went to CVS and bought some iced coffee with the CurrentC app. This morning you go to Target and a coupon pops up in their app for some eye drops, because based on your previous shopping habits they assumed you stayed up all night.

Of course, there are people who are willing to accept such data mining simply for the discounts. However, CurrentC has such a clunky user experience even compared to swiping a card (let alone stuff like Apple Pay that used NFC) that the vast majority of people won't even bother. And the fact that it's still not out yet doesn't help them either.
 
Good. Best Buy will start getting my business again.

Now for Kroger, I'm still waiting on them.
 
JeffyTheQuik said:
AAPL - $760B
Walmart - $256B
CVS - $114.3B
Target - $53.B

So, with a market capitalization of approximately half of Apple's, Walmart, CVS, and Target are "the establishment?"
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Yes. Apple has the money but in their respective markets the companies you mentioned are eminently more established than Apple. Market cap isn't everything. Claiming that it is just reveals a lack of understanding. Market cap is fickle and vulnerable to economic and geo political forces far beyond the control of any single entity.
 
Urban Joe said:
Yes. Apple has the money but in their respective markets the companies you mentioned are eminently more established than Apple. Market cap isn't everything. Claiming that it is just reveals a lack of understanding. Market cap is fickle and vulnerable to economic and geo political forces far beyond the control of any single entity.
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Agreed with the parts in bold, however, part of the "establishment" ranking is that when the entity sneezes, the rest of the industry gets a cold.

Of those, I'd put Apple and Wal-mart in that category. Target and CVS could disappear, and a lot of people would just go somewhere else. That is not to say they wouldn't be unnoticed (double negative, I know...), but their impact would be smaller.

As for the "lack of understanding," this really isn't the forum for a full dissertation on the facets of what is/is not "the establishment." The point of putting my point as a question was not to impugn you, but to provide a different viewpoint.
 
tasset said:
Flat and/or consumption taxes on the bottom 65% is a quick way to incite a revolution where everyone loses.
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Maybe you should do the math. You might be surprised.

I used the IRS's data for distribution of income taxes, by percentile. You can find it here:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/11in03etr.xls

I found that by setting the "standard deduction" at $34,823 (which was the adjusted gross income floor for the top 50% in 2011), a flat income tax rate of 21% would have generated the income tax revenue collected in 2011.

Thanks to that "standard deduction", the bottom 50% would have paid zero federal income taxes in 2011. It wouldn't have been a large reduction, as the bottom 50% paid less than 3% of all federal income taxes that year.

Before you start throwing stones at someone else's opinion, you should take the time to inform yourself, rather than depending on someone else's propaganda that is explicitly designed to mislead you.

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LordVic said:
in some cultures it's an insult to tip.
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And in others, it's considered a compliment, not an obligation.

My wife and I were in Europe last summer, in a few places where Americans were unusual -- at least for the past few years, thanks to the exchange rate. "Tips" for the servers were actually "commissions", meaning they were built into the price. Menus and receipts actually said that 12% was included.

We tipped anyway, especially for good service. As a result, we were treated like royalty: personal attention, free drinks, free food. I found out later that their usual group of tourists were notoriously "cheap".
 
BeyondtheTech said:
You totally missed the real beginning of the quote.

"MCX was created to capitalize on a tremendous opportunity for consumers..."

Therein lies the problem. As Tim Cook stated on the :apple:Pay keynote, these companies are there to capitalize, not fix a systemic problem or further streamline efforts in the retail payment process.
Click to expand...

It's obvious that MCX was created to $$$, but what opportunity are they referring to? MCX isn't directly beneficial to consumers.
 
mr.steevo said:
Personally, I don't understand the cheering on of Apple Pay. This is just an effective way of eliminating a cash exchange and guaranteeing traceable and taxable exchanges. ...but it's sure cool using my phone to pay for a hamburger, right?!
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I guess that would only affect you, if you like to avoid paying the correct amount of tax.
 
Board member friend of mine passed me this. His company gets updates from these clowns. Here's the latest:

"Igniting mobile payments for consumers is challenging, as we’ve seen reported. The real key for driving adoption is delivering a mobile payment network that works for both consumers AND retailers. ApplePay reviews have proven the criticality of this, with 67% reporting a bad first experience.

Who better to provide feedback than users from the over 5 million retail employees in the MCX network, ensuring that consumers will have the support they need?

Here’s an update of our progress:

• Thousands of employee users, performing thousands of transactions across multiple states, through our CurrentC mobile wallet. All transactions include payment + loyalty, driving usage.

• 7 merchants in are now in private launch, with more to join by the end of the year.

• Big-box, Grocery, Drug store, Convenience, Fuel, and QSR verticals are processing transactions, through multiple POS systems.

• The app is proving to be “sticky”. Employees are using CurrentC during their work shifts, but also on their days off for personal shopping. The average order value is larger than expected. Real evidence that saving time and money—more than payments—drives adoption.

• Users are enthusiastic about applying payment, loyalty and offers in single scan.

• The app is being used both on Androids and iPhones without partiality.

As the mobile payments space continues to evolve, we’re happy to share our perspective on the impact to retailers."
 
ReallyBigFeet said:
Board member friend of mine passed me this. His company gets updates from these clowns. Here's the latest:

"Igniting mobile payments for consumers is challenging, as we’ve seen reported. The real key for driving adoption is delivering a mobile payment network that works for both consumers AND retailers. ApplePay reviews have proven the criticality of this, with 67% reporting a bad first experience.

Who better to provide feedback than users from the over 5 million retail employees in the MCX network, ensuring that consumers will have the support they need?

Here’s an update of our progress:

• Thousands of employee users, performing thousands of transactions across multiple states, through our CurrentC mobile wallet. All transactions include payment + loyalty, driving usage.

• 7 merchants in are now in private launch, with more to join by the end of the year.

• Big-box, Grocery, Drug store, Convenience, Fuel, and QSR verticals are processing transactions, through multiple POS systems.

• The app is proving to be “sticky”. Employees are using CurrentC during their work shifts, but also on their days off for personal shopping. The average order value is larger than expected. Real evidence that saving time and money—more than payments—drives adoption.

• Users are enthusiastic about applying payment, loyalty and offers in single scan.

• The app is being used both on Androids and iPhones without partiality.

As the mobile payments space continues to evolve, we’re happy to share our perspective on the impact to retailers."
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So the big question is...when are they finally going to do a public launch? If they're ever going to bother to.
 
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