Used Equipment Update

Just a quick note that all of my used equipment has been sold with the exception of the used cash registers.

$25 Complete Specialty Retail/Restaurant Point of Sale System

Update November 2014. It appears that I was not wrong. Once folks saw the contract and actual costs associated with the Harbortouch point of sale solutions, they crossed Harbourtouch off of their lists. Note that the point of sale business that I worked for stopped offering cash registers and point of sale systems in Fall of 2013 so ignore the phone numbers below.  You can still contact me for free and unbiased point of sale advice though!

OK - as you know I have been very vocal against the 'free' point of sale systems offered by Harbortouch. I felt that the value just wasn't there compared to purchasing or leasing a point of sale system for retail stores and restaurants.

It appears that I may (time will tell) be wrong.

Based on conversations with the folks at Harbortouch, owners of retail stores and restaurants using Harbortouch, as well as other point of sale dealers selling Harbortouch, it appears that Harbortouch is a viable solution for many small or start up retail stores and restaurants who just do not have the cash flow or credit yet to purchase or lease a $6,000 to $12,000 point of sale system.

So, I am looking for 6 businesses in the greater Boise, ID area (specialty retail stores and restaurants of any kind) to try out Harbortouch.  Here are the key details:

What You Get:

·         New touch screen computer with credit card swipe

·         New receipt printer, cash drawer, customer price/pole display and barcode scanner (barcode scanner and price/pole display not included with restaurant systems)

·         Professional installation (must have existing computer network for multi-terminal installations)

·         24/7 support

·         5 year hardware replacement warranty (shipping costs not included)

The Costs:

·         Only upfront cost is shipping which runs around $25/terminal

·         Monthly support fee of $69/month per terminal

·         Quarterly warranty fee of $59

The Restrictions:

·         Credit score of at least 525

·         5 year system and merchant services commitment (we will set and maintain competitive merchant             services rates on your behalf)

If you have a retail store or restaurant generating $150,000 to $750,000 in annual gross sales, then this is a great way to start using a complete point of sale system with very low upfront costs. By comparison our typical point of sale systems run $6000 to $12,000 for an outright purchase or $100 - $300 a month on a 5 year lease. Your anticipated costs over five years for this system is $5345 (none of the prices include costs related to supplies or merchant services fees).

If the system works well for these 6 customers, then I will look at expanding to offer the systems to retail stores and restaurants throughout the Western US.

 PS - here are what the retail and restaurant systems look like:

Retail System

Restaurant System

Used Equipment

Just finished upgrading a long term customer from Microsoft RMS Store Operations to NCR Counterpoint and they asked me to help sell some of the used peripherals.  You can see the picture below and here is the equipment list (all in good condition and functioning):

• Symbol LS2208 USB Barcode Scanner
• MagTek 2 track USB Credit Card Swipe
• Epson TMT220PD Receipt Printer
• APG VP320 Vasario Cash Drawer with Epson Interface

New Price for the above items was $1014.00.  Used price for the whole bundle is $400.

Increase in Consumer Spending Expected

This would be very welcomed news for all of us small business business owners:

http://bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2013/05/economists_predict_increase_in_consumer_spending

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend - look for a big announcement in the next one to two weeks related to some additional point of sale solution options that I will be offering to retail stores, bars, and restaurants. I believe that the word "free" may be mentioned a few times...

-Kevin

New Pricing Option for NCR Silver

Since interest has been steadily growing in the NCR Silver iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch point of sale system, I thought that I should pass along a new pricing option that we can offer. Keep in mind that our $49/month promotional pricing offer expires on June 30th.


As of May 24^th, we will be offering an alternate monthly subscription plan.  When you place your orders, you will have an option to choose our existing $79/month (or 5 months at $49/month for orders placed before June 30th plus one month free) unlimited transaction plan or our new $29/month plus 15 cents per transaction plan (all transactions-not just credit).  The lower monthly fee plan is perfect for those businesses who do not do a lot of transactions but want all the benefits of NCR Silver, such as reporting, inventory tracking, mobility, and e-mail marketing.  And for those seasonal businesses, they can be on the $79 plan during their peak seasons and then convert to the $29 plan during their off season. 

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.

Tuesday Tip – Recording Email Addresses

I had planned on starting a series on how to use the user defined fields in point of sale software but realized that we have a holiday next week so I will start the user defined fields information in June.

For marketing purposes or for general communication, it is always helpful to capture email addresses from your customers. It is pretty easy as both Microsoft RMS Store Operations and NCR CounterPoint have a field to enter the customers email address.

RMS Store Operations users will see the email field under the “Billing Information” tab when looking up or entering customer information:

NCR CounterPoint users will see something similar (depending how you have CounterPoint set up for either Quick or Full Customer Entry screen):

You can run reports in each program to export email addresses to programs like Constant Contact but keep in mind that both Microsoft RMS and NCR CounterPoint have optional utilities for email marketing so you don't need to use third party programs like Constant Contact.

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.