Good Evening!
We're posting to give a heads up to our Northern California sellers that, due to high winds, PG&E is planning large-scale shutoffs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In that same vein, we all know that power outages can happen anywhere, and it's always great to be prepared—no matter where you are. 😉
To see if your home or business is in one of PG&E's shutoff zones, head over to this resource: Bay Area Outage Map, and enter your address into the search section.
If you find yourself in one of the potential shutoff zones, now is a great time to review how Point of Sale features can keep your business up-and-running:
- Keep card payments flowing by enabling Offline Mode. Learn more here: Process Payments with Offline Mode.
- The Magstripe Reader, Contactless and Chip Reader, Square Stand, and Square Terminal can all last a business day without needing to be connected to a power source. Ensure you're getting the most out of your battery life by following these best practices: Charging and Battery Questions.
- Depending on your accessory setup, the cash drawer, printer, and bar code scanner may not work during a power outage. As a backup, you can still send Digital Receipts with Point of Sale. In addition, you may want to keep a drawer key handy with one of your employees in the event that they need to make change. If you need a replacement key, locate the key code on the lock of your cash drawer, then contact the manufacturer: APG or StarMicronics.
For more general information on preparing for emergencies, have a look at this post: Small Business Emergency & Natural Disaster Preparedness 🌪 ☔️ ❄️ 🔦
Know where to go—if you find yourself needing support during a PG&E outage, check out this list to find the resource center closest to you: Places to go during potential PG&E power shutoff.
Stay safe, and if any questions come up, please don't hesitate to let us know below. 🙏
️ Tom | he/him
Seller Community Manager | Square, Inc.
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