I have a phone thru Kroger, Sprint network. In my area, Sprint's network sucks. The phone itself is a Kycero Milano. Not a bad phone for a beginner smart phone. I can look at FB, and lots of web pages (in area or WIFI). Wifi is much faster than in coverage area.

As far as apps, my phone is supposed to work with Intel's credit card service--Go Payment, but I've not used it. Weather is easy.

The camera on my phone is good enough to substitute for my 8 mp digital for my work as a merchandising. It also takes video with no trouble. Downside, it will only hold up to 2g micro-sd card for extra memory.

Marla

There are several ways to take credit card payments; most of them are too big of a pain to bother with, except for the newest app that lets you sign with a fingernail. You need a signature, either paper or digital, in order to create a valid contract. If you just have the card-swiper, but no way for the customer to sign, the system still works enough for you to get paid. But the problem is that any customer could always call their card company later and dispute the charge. In that case, you have to have the signature for proof. If you don't, the card company will refund the customer's money. That's why you have to sign something almost every time you use a credit card.

If the sale is less than $25, no signature is required. I noticed this starting about a year ago.

Any touch screen should be able to capture the signature if you really wanted it to.

CC are a pain if you are a small retailer, but a few extra $20 sales can add up quite a bit.

Marla

Greetings,
This kinda falls back on the post I made about Bridge cards from the market I discovered who use those cards but are unable to reach a Farmer's Market. As for the credit cards is another option for payment for the CSA as well as what appears to be an additional $40-50 a week. definitely worth looking into in my opinion.

In Indiana, the EBT cards (we called them different name) and CC are not the same, but you do need a merchant account for either. You need to be able to take the CC if you want to take the EBT.

In Indiana, you need to be able to have a continuous supply of at least 3 brands/types of each vegetable or anything. AND have possible sales of $20,000 per year. So I'm not thinking that EBT is logical for me.

Back to topic, most any smart phone can access the web, weather and such. Even some 'almost' smart phones can.

Marla

If the sale is less than $25, no signature is required. I noticed this starting about a year ago.

That is interesting. Does that come from visa or mastercard? In a legal sense, evidence of the contract is required in case of dispute, but I could see banks and card companies not wanting to deal with small disputes. We are all at the mercy of their rules.

I used MC, but several stores that I shop have told me, this is for any card. Use your card at McD and see if it the same for you.

We use square to take credit cards and it works really well. You can get a stylus to write with on your phone and just have people sign with that. We have one for our Ipad. Square is free until you use it and then they take a percent flat rate. I think it's 3%.
We also use accuweather to check the weather.
We are very fortunate where our market is, we can use their wifi for free, because they have an internet hot spot. it reaches all the way to our booth, so I bought one of the new Ipad II's so that I can do all this tech stuff easier on a bigger screen. And I don't have to pay for a plan, since the wi fi area is the only place I use it. If for some reason their wifi was down, my daughter helps me on Saturdays and she has a smart phone that we have used the square on too. It's a card reader that fits into your headphone jack on the android and other smart phones and tablets.
We have a paper receipt we can fill out for people who want it, but most people just want you to text them their receipt to their cell phone. It's one of the things you can do through square for free. Some of them like the text receipt so much that they quit taking money to the market though...so that kind of sucks!