POS Software Blog

Today’s QSR customer has evolved.  This is clear in the diverse offerings on the menus of the most popular fast food restaurants that are famous for their burgers and fries.  Although the burger and fry customer still exists, QSR’s have adapted menus to satisfy today’s more health-conscious consumer.   It has been proven that a steady diet of burgers and fries will shorten one’s life significantly and cause a multitude of health problems along the way.  Hence, the recent success and growth of QSR’s like Subway, Qdoba and Panera just to name a few.

Independent merchants are faced with many challenges in controlling costs and maximizing ROI for their businesses.  One of these challenges comes in the form of fees paid to credit card companies.  This area can be quite confusing for some merchants due to the layers of complexity involved in the payment processing industry.  As a POS solution provider, I have gained some insight on how the industry works and did my best to simplify the structure of those layers in a previous blog post located at this link – https://blog.posprophetsystems.com/blog/bid/110007/Paper-or-Plastic-Payment-Processing-Considerations-from-an-Objective-Source.

Farm and Feed stores are relied upon heavily in the communities they serve.  While some serve primarily as supply houses for farmers, others provide a broader range of products and services for the community in which they operate.  This is typically driven by location and the proximity of the feed store to other types of retailers that serve each community.

I've always been fascinated with how words take on new meaning within particular industries or social circles. In retail and hospitality, the word "ring" is a prime example. Anyone who has ever worked as a clerk, a cashier, a server, a bartender, a delivery person, etc is familiar with "ringing" up a customer or guest check. The derivative of this industry-specific term is the sound made by a cash register drawer. Most older cash registers contained a bell that would ring each time the cash drawer fired open. Many modern-day computer peripheral cash drawer devices used with automated POS (point-of-sale) systems also contain optional bells that will ring each time the POS system fires the cash drawer.

***Updated from previous 2011 post***

Even the smallest of towns in the US have at least one great bakery.  When researching the numbers, there is a wide disparity from source to source.  The reason for this is that bakeries come in so many different flavors.  Some market research includes segments of the industry that are fairly specialized like donut shops and bread outlets.  Others include “big box” bakeries like Panera Bread.  Personally, I would classify Panera as a QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) rather than a bakery.  Nonetheless, the numbers are staggering.  Simply put, every city and town has a need for a great bakery.

One of the greatest challenges for independent merchants is inventory control.  In most cases, inventory is the largest investment for the independent merchant.  So, controlling costs in this area is critical to the success of the small business.  Automating the ordering process, the checking in of shipments, physical counts and controlling shrinkage can be time-consuming and painstaking tasks for smaller retailers.

The cash register was invented in 1879 by James Ritty.  James Ritty was a saloonkeeper in Dayton, OH whose bartenders often pocketed the profits instead of turning them over to their boss.  James’ brother John was a mechanic who helped him design the first, most basic of cash registers to preserve profits in their saloon.  The original device did not even provide a drawer for storing cash.  It consisted of a series of keys that represented specific amounts of money.  The concept came to Ritty while he was on a steamboat trip to Europe.  He found himself intrigued by a device that counted the number of rotations in the ship’s propeller.  Brilliant!

With Hurricane Sandy wreaking havoc on the entire East Coast and a large portion of the Mid-Atlantic, I am reminded of the importance of backing up POS data.  Independent merchants often lose sight of the importance of this concept.  Often times, it is a simple case of “out of sight – out of mind.”  Other times, merchants assume that their POS provider is taking care of these tasks for them.  Although this may be the case in some instances, it is critical that independent merchants understand the importance of backing up the POS data as well as how it works, where the backup resides, etc.

In 2011, the National Coffee Association reported there were 22,549 coffee shops in the USA.  This was an 18.4% increase in the number of stores over the previous 3 years.  We are clearly a nation that loves our java.  More importantly, we love the charm and atmosphere provided by these coffee shops and tea houses that seem to appear on every street corner.  We love the aroma, the décor and the trendy music playing in the background.  As a society, we love the entire coffee shop experience.