Last week I was wandering the fancy shops of the San Francisco Ferry Building, when I came across this friendly dude behind the cash register of a pop-up shop for Buyer's Best Friend, selling gourmet chocolate and other treats:
"How many people actually buy stuff with Bitcoin?" I asked him, while munching on a chocolate sample*.
"Not too many -- maybe 2-3 every month," he told me. However, he added, it was even less before December last year, but Bitcoin purchases "took off during the holidays". To, you know, 2-3 purchases a month. On the one hand, given my ongoing skepticism, I expected roughly zero purchases. On the other, the San Francisco Ferry Building is one of the most popular shopping destinations in the entire city; in 2003, it drew 6 million visitors. It's even more striking when you consider where the Ferry Building is:
You know, the San Francisco Bay Area, the white hot center for Bitcoin, where technophiles actively promote the currency, now-wealthy techies purchase it, and prominent venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen invest tens of millions in startups based around Bitcoin. Yet somehow, despite all that ambient enthusiasm, hardly anyone seems to use this virtual currency regularly touted as the future of money as, you know, money. Maybe I'm missing some explosive growth of usage that doesn't involve chocolate, but until I do, I'm maintaining my suspicion that Bitcoin euphoria is a variation on Second Life hype.
The owner of Buyer's Best Friend, the cashier told me, is a personal advocate of Bitcoin. Which is another similarity to Second Life during the over-hyped boom times -- lots of loud advocates, few actual customers.
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* Which are really goddamn good, by the way!
These guys have some of the best chocalates and local goods in the SF area that I have tried out. They have numerous samples that you can even try daily before buying. The people who work for them are extremely friendly, courteous and knowledgeable. I really dont have anything but nice things to say about them, but what irrates me is that they don't really get that many Bitcoin transactions IN SAN FRANCISCO!!!!
Regardless, they have stayed with Bitcoin and really deserve some love from the community. I'm always asking them how many bitcoin transactions they have and im always sad when they tell me 1-2 others per month. We all want biz's to accept BTC but we need to also be spending at places like this which are as loyal as they come.
Please make an effort if youre located in SF to get to one of their spots. I recommend the shop on Haight St if you are ever in the hood!
Posted by: h00dui | Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 03:37 PM
Even though I don't really use much cash (food trucks around the library naturally don't take cards) much anymore, I still feel iffy around digital money.
Posted by: Kitty Revolver | Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 06:49 PM
Will this chocolate fellow take tulips as payment instead?
Posted by: joe | Monday, February 23, 2015 at 01:22 PM