November 12, 2007
After evaluating several options for point-of-sale, Brant Food Centre recently selected Cataput to replace their old "box" cash registers. The POS hardware selected was the designed-for-grocery Toshiba ST-7000. The idependently owned and operated Brantford landmark upgraded to multi-lane scanning, integrated credit & debit, gift card, touch screens, integrated label and sign printing, customer billboard, and added a hand held inventory terminal to speed up in-store processes.
Touch Screens for Grocery POS Systems will eventually replace all PLU lists for difficult to tag items like produce, bakery and bread items. No more messy paper lists, barcode sheets, or cumbersome space-wasting roller-bin lists. Grocery POS touch screens will allow cashiers to select produce and non-barcoded items right off a touch screen menu. After enormous success in the hospitality and restaurant industry, It's an idea whose time has come for the Grocery industry.
Customer Interactive Displays show a graphical representation of the running receipt next to advertising at the checkout on a secondary LCD monitor. Their practical function in replacing the the old fashioned "pole display" provides real-time receipt information to the customer during the transaction. If an item is double scanned or perhaps incorrectly priced, the customer can let the cashier know during the sale, rather than having to correct an error after. This improves error correction and increases through-put at the point of sale. By making the sale process 100% transparent, they improve overall security for both the owner/operator and the customer. With the insertion of scrolling on-screen advertising for a captive audience, they provide an additional return on investment to store management and a new medium for marketing and promotion for both the store and suppliers.
Integrated Payment Systems like credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards, streamline the transaction, reduce errors, and increase security. Catapult uses highspeed internet for all credit and debit transactions, resulting in transaction speeds of 2-3 seconds. This improved transaction time increases efficiency of the POS and reduces customer wait times, ultimately reducing the lengths of line-ups and increasing sales. By integrating the payment systems Catapult ties the transaction to the payment type, thereby reducing errors and preventing theft. This improved control will eventually pay for the system.
Electronic Gift Cards have become so popular in hospitality and retail these days, customers just "expect" them everywhere they shop. Catapult has taken gift cards very seriously with an easy to use interface and a "no fees" self-hosted module. The reality of gift cards for retailers is an enormous improvement for the bottom line. Because gift certificates were such a security risk (for all intents and purposes old fashioned gift certificates were treated like cash), managers locked them away in the office out of reach of theft and abuse. However, for the customer, out of sight is out of the cart. Because electronic gift cards are not activated until they are paid for, hanging them up in impulse areas at the cash register is a safe and encouraged marketing strategy. In recent years this has enabled retailers to increase gift card sales by double and sometimes triple digit numbers. The grocery industry has been no exception.
Visit Brant Food Centre at 76 Grey Street, Brantford, Ontario, N3T 2T5, or call: 519-756-8002
Brant Food Centre Grocery POS System At A Glance:
- Catapult Retail POS Software on Toshiba ST-7000 hardware
- 15" LCD resistive touch screen monitors
- Customer interactive display billboards
- Integrated high-speed integrated credit & debit
- Integrated self-hosted gift cards
- Integrated labels & signs
- Magellan scale/scanners
- Hand-held inventory terminal
- Toshiba SL-9000-LSB deli scale/printers
