My Rent-A-Chair Monopoly
I spent three hours in line last Friday for some barbecue. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t just some barbecue. The place worth the wait was Franklin Barbecue in Austin — touted by many food critics as the best BBQ (brisket) in the country. I can tell you this, they aren’t wrong.
After visiting garden centers in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin for two days, my buddy Vince flew out from Cleveland to escape the cold and meet up with me for a three-day, six-stop BBQ expedition. It all commenced at Franklin’s.
Standing in line that long is an interesting experience. There’s that balance between extreme boredom and sheer suspense (as in, is it worth the wait?). Across the street from Franklin’s, there was a man renting neon-colored fold out chairs at $5 a pop. And of the 60 or 70 people in line in front of us and the 25 or so behind us, I’d say about a quarter of them were renting chairs. He had a big sign that read “Rent-A-Chair” with some fine print below it, which we couldn’t quite make out from where we were standing.
Vince said, “What’s to stop us from setting up 20 feet down from him and rent chairs for $4?” I added, “And we would take credit cards, too.” Vince and I were well on our way.
As the line began to move, the closer we got to Mr. Rental Chair and the clearer his sign’s fine print became. Wouldn’t you know it, he does accept credit cards after all, using a mobile credit card reader and his smartphone. And down the drain went our hypothetical chair rental monopoly.
The point? Well, I’ve just been enamored with this mobile credit card reader revolution. From food trucks to trade shows, I’m seeing the technology everywhere and it appears easy enough for just about anyone and any business to use. Have you considered working it into your business? Maybe you already have. How’s that going for you? Let me know!
As for the business half of my Lone Star trip, you can see some of the garden center highlights in a new photo gallery I recently uploaded onto our Lawn & Garden Retailer Facebook page. See it here.
Enthusiastically,
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