Bored & Hungry move shows retail and cryptocurrency payments don’t mix
At the start of this year, RTIH published an article entitled ‘Five retail technology innovations that won’t be big in 2022’.
“Lots of interesting stuff happened last year courtesy of the crypto in retail space,” the article stated.
It added: “We’re still talking about a niche thing, however. Because, and we’ve posed this question on more than one occasion, what in-store or online payments problem does it actually solve? Answers on a postcard, please, to the usual address…”
Fast forward to the present day and recently opened NFT themed burger joint Bored & Hungry has stopped accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.
Bored & Hungry, which is located in Long Beach, California, launched a couple of months ago with the claim to be the first restaurant to accept Ethereum and Apecoin.
Owner Andy Nguyen didn’t respond to repeated emails asking about the change.
But one Bored & Hungry employee, when asked if it was possible to pay with crypto, told the Los Angeles Times: “Not today — I don’t know”.
They also declined to clarify how long ago the store had stopped accepting crypto or whether that option would eventually return.
A Los Angeles Times article states: “With both Ethereum and Apecoin down more than 60% since early April and undergoing double-digit intra-day swings, it would be understandable for any business to be reluctant to accept them in lieu of dollars.”
“But utility may also be a factor. At the restaurant’s grand opening, a staffer told The Time that the crypto payments were unwieldy and going largely ignored by customers.”
“Yes, Ethereum is a currency in a way where you can exchange [non-fungible tokens, or] NFTs and stuff … but as far as buying food and all that, maybe not,” one crypto enthusiast diner, Marc Coloma, said.
“People want to hold onto their Ethereum. They’re not gonna want to use it.”
Another customer said he bought into Ethereum after meeting other crypto investors during the four hour wait for Bored & Hungry’s grand opening. But on his latest visit he paid in US dollars.
“I don’t know how [crypto purchases] would work, with the crash,” he stated.
So there you have it. Unpopular and unwieldy. Oh, and no longer the next big blockchain thing as it is overtaken in the hype stakes by NFTs.
Bitcoin et al sound cool and their champions, like Adam Aron of AMC Theatres, do an undeniably good job of promoting them, but they’re too volatile to serve as an effective payments solution for retailers.
They may not be perfect, but we’ll stick with cash, cards, Apple Pay etc when buying hipster burgers, thank you very much.
