Buy Toast Stock. It’s More Than Just Restaurant Payments.


  • Order Reprints
  • Print Article
Illustration by Shira Inbar

Americans who have dined in restaurants abroad have long been familiar with a waiter with a hand-held device taking their credit-card payment at their table. It’s in contrast to the largely U.S. ritual of handing over your card, sitting impatiently while the waiter punches the transaction into a point-of-sale system somewhere in the back of the restaurant, only to return with a paper receipt for you to sign.

U.S. diners are finally getting a taste of their international peers’ more seamless experience, thanks to next-generation providers like Fiserv (ticker: FISV) Clover, Block (SQ) Square, and, in particular, Toast (TOST). Sleek terminals for taking orders and payments are the most visible features to diners, but Toast also has a suite of software that aims to act as an operating system for restaurants. It replaces analog or more labor-intensive processes throughout the kitchen and dining room, saving time and effort for staff and customers alike.