Lucky Bean, a coffee shop and lifestyle brand in Erie, Pennsylvania, was born out of the desire to do coffee differently. Founded by Frankie Stark, alongside his brother Norman and their business partner Ryan Wout, the business initially started by selling bags of single-origin coffee online. Once their coffee beans won a local competition in Erie, demand for the coffee grew, and Stark ultimately opened Lucky Bean in October 2024. One year later, the business is planning its second location, expanding its retail sector, and has become a true community hub, hosting a popular run club twice a week that draws nearly 100 participants.
“There are a lot of brand-centric coffee shops that may have a run club or a book club, and we need these things back in our world, especially from small businesses that can really tell a story. That’s what we wanted to do with Lucky Bean,” said Stark.
Read how the business used Square to bring its vision to life.
How it started: Crafting a seamless experience on day one
As a serial entrepreneur, Stark was familiar with all the major payment processors. He ultimately chose Square for his first brick-and-mortar business because the user interface provided a seamless and intuitive experience. “If you want an Apple iPhone, you go with Square. If you want an Android, you go with everyone else. That’s what I saw. The UI is amazing, and being able to find, save, and share data quickly is super important,” he explained.
Having a seamless experience on both sides of the counter has been a major growth driver for the business. With Square Register, the checkout process automatically prompts customers to sign up for the loyalty program, and as a result, the program has an estimated 70,000 members.
“The display screen will ask if they have an account with us, and if not, they can easily input their phone number. It connects to Cash App, so customers can see their loyalty points on Cash App,” he explained.
As Lucky Bean grew, the team knew they needed to invest in more Square tools to streamline operations. The team chose Square Premium to cover all of its needs, from gift cards to loyalty programs to perhaps its biggest game-changer: inventory management.
How it’s going: Streamlining business tasks with Square Premium
“As soon as we got Square Premium, we started doing inventory in Square. We were doing inventory on an Excel sheet before,” Stark explained. Bringing inventory management into the same system that manages the rest of the business made operations significantly easier for the team. “Any business owner will tell you that the fewer software companies, the better [where possible]. The more platforms you have with information just sitting in the clouds, it’s going to make the business more convoluted in my opinion,” he added.
With inventory management now being managed through Retail mode, the team is able to change the way they manage hundreds of SKUs. “Receiving inventory is the most important part of a business. We love Square Handheld because we can easily scan in new items [with the barcode scanner] and it goes right to that SKU and updates to the POS system,” he explained.
I switch between Retail and Restaurant modes on one piece of hardware, and the new bundle makes it seamless. Everything I need – from managing our café operations to handling retail inventory – is fully accessible and connected…Square has pretty much made it so that we now have all the resources at our fingertips.”
Frankie Stark → co-owner of Lucky Bean
Impact: Expanding with confidence and connected tools
After one year of being in business and reaching profitability, Lucky Bean is preparing to open its second location. “[The pricing bundle] has allowed us to grow smarter, stay organized, and confidently expand into our second location knowing the system can handle it,” Stark explained.
Opening a second location brings the business one step closer to its long-term vision of multiple locations and building up the brand throughout the area.
Stark envisions a future where drive-thrus will be more commonplace in their locations to more easily cater to customers, and the plan is to continue using Square every step of the way. “It feels like we’re running on a system built for how we actually work – fast, flexible, and rooted in real connection with our customers. This system is 20% input, 80% output.”
