Square has announced London Drugs has become the first Canadian-based retailer to sell Square in their stores.
Square Reader enables anyone to accept credit card payments on a mobile device and has seen rapid adoption from individuals and business owners across Canada. Square Reader is free, and works simply by plugging into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPad, or Android device.
Square Reader works with Square Register, the free iOS app that enables people to accept credit card payments securely with a transaction fee of 2.75% per swipe. Along with availability at London Drugs, Square Reader is now at over 800 retail stores in Canada at a cost of $9.95, with first-time customers getting a $10 rebate.
Square has surged in popularity in Canada and recently announced the opening of a permanent office in Kitchener-Waterloo, slated for 2014. The company launched its mobile payments system last October in Canada.
Update: Square wants to clarify the following:
“We are proud to sell Square Readers at hundreds of retail stores across Canada. We are particularly excited to sell readers at London Drugs, as it’s the first Canadian-owned retail shop featuring Square Readers in all of their stores.”
Also, Chapters is an authorized reseller but only a few stores carry the Reader.
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If you sign up online I thought they send you one for free?
I guess free and $10 rebate are the same thing?
Sounds interesting, not that I have a need for it now but….
I guess I should have read the whole article. I didn’t see the rebate part.
How exactly do you reconcile the first sentence of this article, stating that London Drugs is the first retailer in Canada to sell Square, with the link later in this article to one from November of last year stating that Square is available at the Apple Store, Best Buy, and Future Shop?
I’d hate to think it was a calculated reason such as all the retailers you mention are non Canadian corporations and London Drugs is Canadian owned. That would be cynical.
Probably just a sloppy press release…
Yep, that’s the point they tried to emphasize today about LD.
‘Canadian-based retailer’ is different versus ‘first retailer in Canada’.
Cynical on their part I would say and rather stupid. I wonder how much LD paid to be the first Canadian based retailer… it happens.
I’ve seen these in Chapters a month or so ago. Wouldn’t they count as Canadian based?
That is correct. I will let Square know!
Maybe question press releases. Hardly matters in the scheme of things but corporate bullshit is corporate bullshit. It sticks.
I hear what you are saying and I was conscious of this line in the release (and others). London Drugs started in Vancouver and is most likely their first Canadian-based retail partnership, aside from the big electronics chains.
Updated the post with clarification from Square.
My wife loves it. The 2.75% is a bit of a kicker. They were giving these away for free at a Vancouver esthetics show. I guess Square wanted makeup artists and estheticians to use this in their home business or studios. Very convenient.