Take cash from the register of a local store, legally, with Spare

Thanks to an app called Spare, you might be able to one day walk into a local store, demand money from the shopkeep, walk out of the store with cash, and not have to worry about getting busted by the cops. Spare actually is a brilliant idea. If you are from out of town, from another country, or just don't want to get ripped off by ATM fees, this is the app you need to install on your phone once it is out of beta.

Spare is not yet being widely distributed. But when it is launched, it will allow you to quickly grab some cash for those moments when your wallet contains only mothballs and cobwebs. Open the app and type in the amount of cash you need. Your GPS directs you to the closest store that is registered with the app. When you get to the store, head over to the person behind the register and show him or her the one-time PIN code generated by the app on your phone. That should be enough to get the person working the register to open it, and disperse to you the amount of cash you requested.

As we said, Spare is in its early days, but the outlook is promising. In Southern California, the app already has over 150 merchants signed up along with 1200 customers looking to borrow some moola. For the merchants involved, signing up with Spare means that more traffic comes inside the store. But considering that these people are borrowing money, we're not sure how much revenue this extra foot traffic will mean for retailers.

We should point out that the stores signed up with Spare do have the option of adding a service charge in the form of a flat rate fee, or a percentage of the amount borrowed.

source: CNET