Today I had a very interesting experience.
I ran out of coffee filters for my Chemex coffeemaker.
Rather than ordering more filters from the Chemex website and waiting for a few weeks for them to arrive, I decided to see if I could find some around town. So, I went to Ask.com, typed in, ‘where can i purchase chemex coffee filters in san francisco?’ and the first listing was on Yelp.
I visited Yelp and saw Sightglass Coffee listed. I’ve heard about Sightglass Coffee because I see their street sign while on my bicycle ride to work every day. I’ve also been following Sightglass Coffee on Twitter so I sent them a tweet asking if they have any Chemex coffee filters for sale. A few minutes later, I got a tweet saying they have some they can sell me for $8/box.
I hopped in the car, fired up Waze, a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation app on my iPhone, and headed to SOMA.
Upon my arrival, I asked for the filters, an Americano, and some ground beans. I asked if they take credit cards and the guy behind the counter said yes. I handed over my credit card and he pulled out his Apple iPod Touch. Dangling from the bottom of the iPod Touch was a small white square device. I asked, ‘Is that a square?’ and he said yes. I also follow Square on Twitter and know about the payment device but have never seen one. Just like that, he swiped my card. Then, I used my finger to sign the touch screen, and then I entered my email address in order to get a receipt emailed to me. Amazing.
Then, on my way out the door, I loaded up foursquare, logged my location at Sightglass coffee, pinged Twitter about the fact and then a minute later, a friend replied on Twitter that Sightglass is her drug of choice.
I think this string of events is indicative of things to come. Well, this is already the way things are today but I’m sure this kind of thing will become more and more commonplace. For now though, it’s all quite exciting.