Forget BitCoin, will “StarBucks” replace cash?

How Starbucks could beat Square, Simple, WaMu and everyone else in the race to replace cash.

It’s a desperate first world problem. Everyone is tired of carrying a phone a card and cash. The public stares longly at their device wondering why they can’t just use it as their wallet. There is an app for absolutely everything except a unified mobile payments platform. Everyone is trying to break into this lucrative market. Apple as thus far let us down with passbook, and Square Wallet is only used in hipster coffee shops in downtown San Fran. No normal person has or wants any of these apps on their phone. Except for one. Starbucks.

Standing in line at Starbucks customer after customer waves the phone to pay for their overpriced coffee. These people are the “Normals” using mobile devices to process payments. The user base is huge and they are already comfortable with the process. Starbucks is already the #1 mobile payment processor handling over $500 Million in transactions last year.

What’s the next step?

Imagine if they started working with partners likeTarget using “StarBucks”

Nobody is better positioned to move into this space. They are trusted, tech savvy and everyone already uses it, technologists and soccer moms alike.

What do they have to gain?

Credit card processors take 2-3% of every transaction. If Starbucks were to cut the middleman, them and their partners get the cash, not the banking systems, as well as hordes of data on consumers you would gain by combining the credit card and the phone.

Really? Starbucks lead a technology revolution?

Starbucks was one of the main factors in modern WiFi standards and is basically deciding the next wireless charging standard. They are a lifestyle company and technology is increasingly a lifestyle industry. Starbucks even invested $25 million in Square last year. We’ll just have to wait and see how far this partnership goes, It might not be long until your $50 has a picture of Howard Shultz.