Square Picks up Well-Known Restaurant Chain The Hat; 33% of C-Store Operators Manage Four or More POS Terminals

Square, the point-of-sale arm of Block Inc., is adding restaurant chain The Hat to its customer list. In related news, 88% of convenience store operators and fuel retailers surveyed by Vontier Corp. report they have experienced a payment outage at least once in the prior 12 months.

The Hat, with 11 locations in Southern California and a new one in Las Vegas, is using the Square POS platform at all sites following an evaluation at a single location in December. The other 10 sites were onboarded by March, Square says.

The Hat, known for its pastrami sandwich, is using Square for Restaurants, which offers centralized menu management and reporting tools. It’s also using Square Register for its counter service and Square Marketing for its customer-engagement and loyalty programs.

“Choosing Square as our new technology partner was a decision we took seriously and viewed as a long-term move,” Jarred Conzonire, director of marketing and operations at The Hat, says in a statement. “We ran a thorough evaluation, going location by location. What we found was a system that matched how we actually work, instead of one that asked us to change what makes us who we are.”

Square recently added another restaurant POS service, drive-thru, just as competitor Toast has.

In related POS news, Vontier, parent company of Gilbarco Veeder-Root, a fuel-pump system maker, released its “Unified Payments Research 2026” report that found fragmented payments systems and outages persist as issues for convenience-store operators and fuel retailers.

The survey of 615 respondents says 75% reported a fragmented payment architecture, with 68% saying they operate two or more payment systems across devices. Fifty percent have four or more outdoor terminals and 33% have four or more indoor terminals.

“This creates a complex ecosystem where 33% are managing at least four vendor certifications to deploy a single new solution,” Vontier says in the report. Vontier is based in Raleigh, N.C.

These certifications can create issues for retailers. The report says 86% complete a Level 3 certification at least once every three years and 34% do so annually. Level 3 certification validates the integration of an EMV acceptance device with its infrastructure, according to EMVCo. The median compliance cost for fuel retailers ranges from $100,000 to $250,000, and up to $1 million for the largest operators.