“Cousins and business partners Steve Escobar and Hugo Salazar wanted to save money and give their Brooklyn brewpub some cutting-edge cool. So the New York restaurateurs installed an iPad- and iPod-based ordering and inventory system in their Brooklyn Tap House, a roughly 5,000-square-foot gastropub serving more than 200 different suds,” Jonathan Blum reports for Crain’s New York Business.
“The steampunk meets cabin-chic bar sits in the heart of what was once among the city’s darkest slums, about a block east of Pratt Institute’s Bed-Stuy campus,” Blum reports. “The Brooklyn Tap House abandoned the traditional sales terminals most restaurants use in favor of three iPads at the bar and 10 iPod Touch devices carried by waitstaff. The devices are identical to what millions of consumers carry for listening to music or browsing the Web, but they’re loaded with a point-of-sale app developed by Albuquerque, N.M.-based POSLavu.”
Blum reports, “Crain’s took a ride out to the Brooklyn Tap House on a crowded Friday night. Here is what the owners and the waitstaff said works—and what doesn’t—with iPad-based point-of-sale tools.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Citymark” for the heads up.]
“It’s easy to break the thing,” Mr. Godbout said. “You really can’t bang on it.”
What are they doing with it that the word bang would ever be used to describe their usage?
Is it really that hard to imagine, they are wait staff. I dunno, but I would imagine that they cannot carry beers/food/etc at the same time as an iPad or iPod, so it goes into the apron or pocket.
How many times have you seen a busy wait-person bump a table or something zooming through a busy establishment?
Pretty easy to imagine them getting “banged” into if you ask me.
From the article they need to install a second wi-fi network exclusive to the POS system.
This is only a few blocks from where my wife used to live a couple of years back. Wish it had been there then, but 4th Avenue pub, a couple blocks in the other direction, is probably more fun.
I do like the iPad menu idea. Even in the best beer bars in Boston, where they update their tap lists daily, things change too fast to always be up to date. An iPad menu that could be updated in real time would be cool.
The what doesn’t work section seems contrived. “Apple equipment is fragile” is simply not true. I can’t believe they wrote that. I think the data suggests that Apple gear is as robust as more so than most tablets. I think this is not iPadp-specific. The majority of tablets would suffer the same problems. Also, the Wi-Fi signal being bad may be a problem with using any tablet-based system if your IT dept is inept.
I am in the market for an IOS POS for our restaurant we will be opening this summer, so was interested in the article.
They do not have a free demo, you must purchase one of their plans and you have 14 days to cancel , the min plan I would need is $1,495.00 and 49.95 per month (2 iPads 10 iPod touch), their unlimited plan is $3,495.00 and $99.95 per month. They have no tuteriols but want you to use one of their distributors at an additional fee.
I have been using a demo/trial version of POSIOS, it was a free sign up, they have a demo restruant to play with and you can start to set yours up, with great tutorials, they have no up front cost, and they have one plan, unlimited iPads/iPods.
I wanted to compare the 2, but super disappointed they have no demo to play with
POSIOS one plan is $49.00 euro per month
Did you call them and ask about demoing it, or are you just assuming they won’t let you demo it?
Did not contact them, they clearly state , sign up for a plan, and you have a 14 day trial,
if you look through the site, they are always pushing you to use one of their resellers for setting up.
The POSIOS is more geared for self set up, they do say they can find someone to help, but they are geared for do it your self, in my opinion.
like they say, 1st impressions!
Just send your money, it’s OK.
I’m going out on a limb here and guessing this is not an iPad-native thought process behind this POS system. It’s priced way too high and too centralized, mostly designed to continuously funnel money from your pocket to theirs. Will they really provide value commensurate with the cost? I’m thinking the true solution comes from a company like Square.
As an aside, I’ve always thought that “POS” was one of the more unfortunate business acronyms to see common usage. 😉