Gourmet Foods Sales

The current economic times may have hit gourmet food lovers in the pocketbook, but they haven't let it hit their taste buds. Although money may be tight, cravings are very hard to resist.

Gourmet food lovers continue to consume luxury and specialty items. Some things, such as high-end chocolate, seem to be recession-proof. According to a study by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade and Mintel International more than 50 percent of specialty foods are bought at supermarkets.

Consumers in the western United States are 13 percent more likely to purchase specialty foods than the rest of the country, according to the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade study. And sales of gourmet and specialty foods have been growing faster than the overall industry for the past five years; according to consumer research firm Packaged Facts. Also a recent Harris Poll found that 51 percent of respondents are eating dinner at home more, but 76 percent won't compromise on food quality no matter the price.

Maintenance for your POS

STCR offers a variety of software and hardware maintenance to help protect your investment. With a yearly maintenance agreement, the STCR help desk is available to assist you in resolving system problems 24 hours a day 365 days a year. You can also purchase maintenance for the software programs we sell. Software maintenance allows us to engage the vendors that develop the applications for extended support. This maintenance also entitles you to new versions of the software when they are released.

A yearly hardware maintenance agreement will keep your equipment such as registers, controllers, back-office computers and various peripherals such as printers, monitors, scanners and pin pads up and running. Some of the plans, such as IBM hardware maintenance, include on-site service whereas others are depot maintenance. Depot maintenance involves sending the failing device out for either repair or a replacement that will be shipped back to you.

Carrying these maintenance plans will minimize the downtime you experience when something malfunctions. Increased downtime can lead to lost income when failing elements cause your store to run inefficiently. Allowing these maintenance plans to lapse can also have a negative effect on your bottom line. Not only may there be a waiting period to reinstate your maintenance it can also be very expensive. For example lapsed IBM software maintenance will cost almost three times as much to reinstate as it would for one year of maintenance. With the holiday season upon us it makes good business sense to carry and keep current the maintenance on your POS system.

New WIC CVV

New revisions have been made to the WIC program as per the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food & Nutrition Service. The new revisions now include a program called WIC CVV. WIC CVV stands for WIC Cash Value Vouchers. This program allows participants to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen fruits and vegetables and some canned goods for their children as well as for themselves. These new items typically were not available before with the normal WIC program. All stores which currently accept WIC must be able to accept the new WIC CVV as well. Unlike a normal WIC transaction, if there is a balance remaining after the voucher(s) has been used, the customer may pay by another tender. If there is an excess balance left on the WIC CVV voucher it will not be given back to the customer.

If your location would like assistance in setting up the new WIC CVV for tendering and reporting purposes, please contact Linda Warke @ (607) 757-0181 for further information.

Price Optimization

Price Optimization seems to be the new buzz word in retail. Price Optimization software helps companies determine the optimal price for a product based on many factors such as gross margin %, competition, private label to national brand gap, demand (price elasticity) and brand linking. Additionally, the software utilizes historical data and predictive algorithms to produce price recommendations. What price should I sell this item for to create the highest gross profit for my company?

Price Optimization programs are driven by proprietary forecasting engines. These engines are based on sophisticated mathematical algorithms originally developed for scientific research and military planning. Airlines began using these solutions in the 1980s to instantly price fares based on variables like booking lead time, flight date and connections, time of day, service class and customer preference. The programs required enormous processing power only available in super computers and primarily used by large companies like airlines that could justify the investment.

With the advances of hardware and the arrival of faster and cheaper servers, companies have been developing software engines to run on these servers while creating an affordable solution for smaller businesses. The results can be churned out in a reasonable amount of time, allowing a merchant to make more informed decisions on their day to day price strategies.

As the programs make their way into the independent grocery industry, grocers are finding that they can increase their bottom line by 1-2% through the use of these tools. By looking at the detailed information the software provides, they’re able to see potential problems with price strategies that had once been hidden in rolled-up data.

Where is the future of this technology? Only time will tell, however with the competitive nature of the landscape, this could be the next tool that will help the independent level the playing field with the competition.

IBM Consumer Survey

The IBM Institute for Business Value conducted a survey of 30,000 U.S. retail consumers to understand what drives consumers’ behavior and spending patterns across several retail categories, grocery being one of many. This survey showed that consumers have changed shopping behavior but rely on retailers they trust.
• 59 percent of consumers have less discretionary budgets than in the previous year
• 91 percent of consumers are sacrificing in some spending areas
• 31 percent of consumers increased spending at primary retailer over the past two years
The current market conditions have forced consumers to make tradeoffs and change their spending habits. The IBM survey data indicates that shrinking wallets have compelled shoppers to make more cautious buying decisions, restricting their purchases to essential items. Retailers must expect and plan for these modifications in behavior.
Visit http://support.stcr.com/Newsletter/ShopperAdvocacy.pdf to read more about the IBM survey and their findings.

POS Maintenance

Holiday season shopping means a high volume of sales in a short period of time. With a high workload and little down time, registers may endure stress levels that can lead to malfunction or breaking. When one component of a lane breaks or stops working, the lane is rendered useless. Fewer lanes available can lead to longer wait times for customers. The last thing a customer wants after shopping all day is to be waiting in line.

With the proper care your registers can endure the stress of the holiday shopping season. Here are some tips to keep your current hardware in top working condition. Check your connections on pin pads, keyboards, scanner scales, monitors and all other components on a weekly basis. Be sure to clean and wipe down cashier stations regularly. Clean up any spills in proximity to any hardware immediately. Have your cashiers and managers report any small incidences or minor malfunctions right away, to prevent them from becoming a much larger issue.

By carrying hardware maintenance on equipment your store will be ready. Without maintenance you may still receive service but at the cost of parts and labor Hardware maintenance agreements can be viewed as an insurance policy for your POS system. You insure your home, car and personal health so why not your business. Call your STCR representative at (607) 757-0181 for more information.

IBM SurePOS 500

IBM recently announced a sleek, powerful new line of point-of-sale systems (POS) with advanced features and functions designed to help retailers create smarter, more dynamic and efficient business operations capable of helping reduce costs, manage risk and energize the consumer buying experience through improved customer service and shopper checkout time.

This latest edition of the IBM SurePOS 500 is among the first retail systems to deploy next generation infrared (IR) touch screen with inadvertent touch screen technology that reduces the risk of unintentionally registering a touch. The innovative touch screen never needs recalibrating, therefore improving accuracy and speeding up transaction times. The highly accurate display permits maximum light transmittal and significant glare reduction to create the highest possible image quality, even in sunlight. In addition, due to retail hardening on the touch screen, it is totally sealed to resist damage from accidental spills.

The IBM SurePOS 500 Express is the industry's leading compact point-of-sale system designed with small to midsized customers in mind. The new Express model provides clients the ability to capture real-time information and new insights at the POS that drive effective customer service initiatives and help ensure the right merchandise is in stock at the right time. By providing employees greater access to product and customer information at point-of-sale, retailers can deliver better customer service, improve employee productivity and, ultimately, deliver smarter business outcomes.

IBM is the only retail vendor to offer retail hardening, deep sleep automation, tool free serviceability and Light-Path and Remote Management capability on a single platform. The unique combination of innovative IR touch screen technology, tool free retail-hardened system design, a biometric fingerprint reader, along with Remote Management Agent and Light-Path diagnostics, is designed to keep point-of-sale systems up and running. IBM clients get a level of reliability, performance and security that is unmatched in the industry.

STCR Business Systems has been selling, installing and supporting cash register systems for 42 years. We are an IBM Premier Business Partner with the in-house expertise to install IBM systems and train your personnel in the most professional manner. For more information about the SurePOS 500 Series, contact STCR Business Systems at (607) 757-0181.