HomerJ wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2017 5:40 pm...It takes about 5 seconds for Subway to process my credit-card and send me on my way... I'll get pretty hungry if I have to wait 20 hours for my bitcoin purchase to go through...
I looked a bit further into the "Subway accepts Bitcoin" idea. I assumed the chain signed up with GoCoin or something... if GoCoin still exists. But I couldn't find any evidence at all that Subway accepts Bitcoin. I spent ten minutes clicking around Subway's website, and actually went so far as to place an order, check out, and go to the payment screen to see what payment options were offered. They
do accept PayPal. Nothing about Bitcoin.
I searched a bit more, and I found a May, 2017 story with the headline
Subway accepts Bitcoins in payment, and here's what the story goes on to say:
Subway accepts Bitcoins in payment
by KryptoMoney | May 18, 2017 | Bitcoin, Latest Posts | 0 comments
Eat Fresh, Eat Subway, and pay in Bitcoins!
A Subway franchisee, in Buenos Aires recently accepted Bitcoin as a method of payment. Buenos Aires is thus the first city in Latin America to do so. Only Moscow and Allentown, Pennysylvania have a Subway franchise that accepts Bitcoin.
So, there you have it. Subway has 45,000 stores in 100 countries, of which three accept Bitcoin.
The stories about the Subway in Allentown that accepts them are all dated 2013, and mention a 24-year-old graduate student named Sapan Shah. He is a Lehigh University graduate working on his master's degree in business administration. Some of the stories refer to it as "his" Subway, but I don't know if owns the franchise or whether he just works there.
And, just as I supposed, the restaurant doesn't exactly accept bitcoin directly (e.g. at its terminals):
Subway did not endorse his decision to accept bitcoins, said Shah, who uses a tablet application to convert payments to U.S. dollars.
So, rather than Subway accepting bitcoins, there is a Subway with someone who converts bitcoin to dollars personally, as a service to his customers.
Note that there are sixteen Subways in Allentown, and only one of them--the one at 3337 (the story says 3333 but I think that's a misprint) Hamilton Boulevard accepts bitcoin.
One
2013 story says that "The Lehigh Valley Subway is believed to be one of only two in the world to accept Bitcoin, said owner Sapan Shah. The other is in Moscow."
The Subway store locator shows one at 3337 Hamilton Boulevard, so I assume it
is still in operation, but there are some strange things. I tried calling it at the number shown on the Subway website, and got a strange message about "the person at extension 101 is not available," and the website has a strange message, "The store is not accepting remote orders at this time." It's only fifteen minutes before their closing time, so maybe they shut down their phone. You will notice that the website indicates that they take Subway gift cards, VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB (a Japanese international credit card, apparently?), and PayPal. Nothing about Bitcoin. Unless JCB has something to do with Bitcoin, but I don't think it does.
If you do a Google Maps search for 3337 Hamilton Boulevard, Allentown, PA, Google Street View offers an interior view of the Allentown Subway, and it was taken by Sapan Shah in 2017. Therefore, I conclude that he is still running, owns, or is connected with the store. I tried to zoom in to see if there is a "Bitcoin Accepted" sign on the door, but I can't tell.
In any case, even if this store
is still accepting Bitcoin, I don't think it is correct to say "Subway accepts Bitcoin." I think it is more accurate to say "There is a Subway in Allentown where someone on staff will use their personal account to convert Bitcoin as a courtesy to the customers."
Oh... and the story, about a Bitcoin enthusiast who drove two hours to buy a sandwich at the Allentown Subway, notes:
His transaction was not an entirely smooth one. Welsh said the clerk had trouble understanding the exchange rate and had to make some calls before the purchase was finalized.
Of course, that was 2013, and things have changed. After all, in 2013, only two Subways in the world accepted Bitcoin, and in 2017, a third, in Buenos Aires, began accepting them. At that growth rate, it will only take 24 years until all 45,000 Subways accept Bitcoin.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.