Point of sale systems

Stub page for a much-needed POS section.

Sources to pull from to improve this page

• This is a perennial discussion topic on the general CGIN-list, and on the CoCoNerds yahoo group.
  
• The February 2012 Food Co-op Alliance NYC meeting was focused on POS discussions, hopefully notes exist?
  
• Spreadsheet listing POS use at food Co-ops.
  
• See also: Software - Sections on POS, lightweight POS, e-commerce, and accounting.

Evaluating POS Solutions

Though it's often mentioned within POS discussions that there are no perfect solutions, and that systems must be evaluated with consideration for needs, wants, budget, in-house skillsets, etc, it may be useful to assemble a "shopping list" of features to help organizations gather their own requirements.

Some specs for evaluation raised on the general CGIN list

• Inventory Tracking
  
• Purchase Order creation
  
• Vendor tracking
  
• Inventory turns, square foot analyses
  
• Sales reports.
  
• Credit Card through the register
  
• Compatibility with existing scales
  
• Member tracking
  
• Member pricing vs non member pricing
  
• Search function for items on the screen (like for produce)
  
• Wireless if possible
  
• 150 departments (for all the vendor and food categories)
  
• Report writer cababilities
  
• Exporting reports to Excel
  
• Importing reports (Like large new items files, not having to enter each
  item.)
  
• Compatibility with UNFI (importing of price tables)
  
• Shelf tag generation
  
• Supervisor functionality
  
• Up to 12 cashier names

Questions to ask existing POS users

• Reliability: How many times in the past month has a transaction been interrupted by software failure?
• Member info: Does the software accommodate customer information, and related details such as customer-discount levels?
• Reports: Are your office staffers able to generate the reports they want? Can custom reports be created by a capable staffer?

Some current POS systems

Microsoft RMS, SMS, Catapault, COPOS, ISS45, Market Master, SMS, IS4C (forum), NCR Scanmaster, Counterpoint, ACR5000, ACS Checkout, ARSS, BRDate Retail Xoss, ISIS, PC Poll, Retail Solutions, Storenext Master.