Will a Food Service Point of Sale System Work in a Retail Store

Since I posted recently why a retail point of sale system will not generally work in a food service business, I figured that I should post about the opposite situation of trying to use a food service point of sale solution in a retail store.

There are multiple reasons why this doesn't work very well. Here are the top reasons:

• Food service point of sale systems are based around menus, choices, and modifiers (like "Cheeseburger, medium-well, with french fries and a side of mayo").  Retail stores need a point of sale system that can scan bar codes and maybe track things like style, size, and color.
• Food service point of sale systems provide data like food and labor costs. Retail stores want reports related to cost of goods sold.
• Food service point of sale solutions allow the ordering of ingredients. Retail stores want a system that issues purchase orders for the actual products.

As you can see, the needs of a retail store are much different from a food service business and, as such, require very different types of point of sale solutions.

There are exceptions!  Smaller businesses with simple product offerings or simple menus (or both) may find that some of the newer mobile point of sale solutions like NCR Silver, Shopkeep, or Bindo Point of Sale will work well for them.  I am generally referring to businesses generating under $300,000 in gross annual sales, food trucks, pop-up businesses, seasonal business, mobile businesses, or kiosk type businesses.

Can I help?  No charge if you have some point of sale questions that I might be able to help you with. You can reach me using the contact form to the right, via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com, or on my cell at 208.340.5632.