Quote from: juggernaut76 on July 27, 2012, 02:02:58 AM

I just visited NM Tea Company in Albuquerque, NM. I chose this particular tea store specifically because I found him listed as accepting Bitcoin and I want to support the Bitcoin community. However, when I inquired about it, the owner stated that he no longer accepts Bitcoin because, while the idea and principles are great, the volatility scared him. He explained that if he sold 2BTC worth of tea today, which might equal $17, it could be worth only $8 tomorrow which would cause him to have lost roughly 50% of his revenue from the sale.

I'm not versed enough the retail aspects of Bitcoin so I didn't have a rebuttal. I am interested in what this community has to say about his concerns, which can help me to engage next time.

Thanks.

1. Bit-Pay allows merchant to accept Bitcoin payments without any currency risk. If he wants $10 he gets $10 (minus a small fee).
2. Even if he doesn't want to rely on Bit-Pay, why does he have to wait until tomorrow? He can sell any received bitcoins instantly via an API. He doesn't even need to wait for the coins to clear into the exchange, he can operate with a reserve, or sell short.
3. Was he just scared about volatility, or was he ever actually harmed by it? If he kept it going I doubt he would have any significant losses due to volatility, even without doing anything to protect from it.

Quote from: FreeMoney on July 27, 2012, 05:22:35 AM

The guy wants dollars, let him have dollars. Accepting bitcoins is awesome for people who want bitcoins.

You're being awfully negative. Accepting bitcoins is awesome for people who want bitcoins but is also great for people who don't.

Quote from: FreeMoney on July 27, 2012, 05:23:59 AM

Also the value could double as easily as halve

Businesses strive to minimize risks. Even if his expected profit/loss from volatility is 0 it creates variance which is bad. The concern is legitimate, his decision is not.

Quote from: FreeMoney on July 27, 2012, 05:23:59 AM

and if he thinks otherwise he has a worse opinion of the value than average and obviosly should not accept it in his store.

A merchant's speculative position on BTC doesn't have anything to do with whether he should accept Bitcoin payments. He could accept Bitcoin because it's cheaper while going short because he thinks the price will go down, or he can take a long position because he thinks the price will go up but not accept them because it's not worth the hassle.

Quote from: FreeMoney on July 27, 2012, 05:26:10 AM

There will be 21 million ever and he doesn't want any, better that other people have them then, nice of him to get out of the way.

I want some of the 21 million, but I also want to be able to use them, merchants accepting bitcoins is vital and the more there are the better.