Toast

I looked into it earlier this year. The total cost was going to be kind of expensive. You had to buy the POS equipment for like $2000 then pay them monthly fees of roughly $175 give or take depending on what services you chose along with a 3 year contract and run credit card processing through them at a higher rate like 3.25%. I was already using Ehungry for online ordering along with Square for credit card processing. I found out that the two integrate with each other and basically I got most things that Toast was offering except for the kitchen display system (KDS) for free then we upgraded our Square to the POS system and the just had the cost of the equipment which was $1200 and I just found out today that Square has now introduced a KDS system and I'll be checking on that soon. The few things that Toast has that I would like are 1) better management for online orders as far as setting up inventory for the day so if you have say 80 lbs or pulled pork, the Toast system will account for portion usage for each menu item and Square won't without paying for an upgraded service which if memory serves me correct is like $70 per month. 2) the customer loyalty programs were all integrated with the Toast system and again you can get it through Square for $70 ish per month. I just don't see these few items being worth the $$. The one negative thing that I can say with the online order option for any of these systems is that it's great to be able to offer this to customers so they can order online and the order shoot out to us 5-10 minutes prior to the time that they selected and then we prep the order to have it ready for their pickup time and then they with forget that they ordered and or show up 30 minutes later. When you are running a food truck hold these prepper items is nearly impossible without issues. Overall though the Square POS system had really helped up. We don't operate a food truck but 3-5 times a month so foe me Toast was not worth it. If I ever go to 3-5 times per week I probably would consider it.

I do know that they quote different credit card rates because after I declined the service they did come back at me and offer to match my Square rates but the fine print was matched for one year. After that, I would still have been in an additional 2 year contract at the higher rate they quoted me the first time. I saw a post when doing my investigations on them from a restaurant that was doing over $40k per month and they had a rate with Toast below 2%. The Delivery features must be something they have added since back in the spring because it was never discussed with me and I never saw any info on that during the demo. Unfortunately for me, I'm in an area where there are no delivery services like Doordash or Ubereats. So for me, I didn't see where the service was worth the extra $800 for equipment and the monthly $175 3-year contract when I could get most of what I needed from Toast through Square and Ehungry for nearly free but if you have the volume and operate 3-7 days a week year-round then I think Toast could be a viable option.