Square Tests New App For Ordering Food Ahead

Square wants to make ordering food as easy as using its app.

The company is testing a new app, called Square Pickup, that lets you order food ahead of time from a Square merchant and then pick it up later.

We first saw this on the Pricenomics blog.

Right now the app is in beta for iOS and Android, and only a handful of San Francisco restaurants are participating.

Here's how it works: The restaurant's menu is loaded into the app; all you have to do is pick what you want to eat, order it through the app, and then pay using Square. Then pick up your food when it's ready.

This may sound like OrderAhead or Seamless, but according to Pricenomics, the Square app has several advantages:

First, tens of thousands of merchants have already loaded their menus into their Square accounts. These merchants also use Square for the Point of Sale system. Now, Square can allow all these merchants to accept orders through Square Pickup with the flip of a switch. Unlike it's competitors, Square may even offer this service for free since it gets paid a transaction fee for processing the credit card.

If I see any restaurants in my neighborhood that use Square Pickup, I'll update this story with further details.