Honest Weight Food Co-Op Opens New Facility

The Honest Weight Food Co-Op opened their brand new environmentally sustainable grocery store at 100 Watervliet Ave. in Albany, NY.

The new store offers an improved shopping experience for their member-owners and customers by providing a larger and more expansive store, greatly increased parking and expanded services and amenities.  The Co-Op also increased the number of checkouts to increase throughput and expand on their customer service.

Leadership In The Workplace

There are two types of leaders, those who can motivate people, and those whose motivation comes from within. When we try to motivate people, what we're really doing is encouraging people topresent ideas in a way that furthers the organization's mission. Encourage and applaud great ideas.

Open and maintain dialogue about critical areas. Allow idea sharing, both formal and informal. Conduct meetings in a formal presentation with detailed action plans. In addition, accept pitches via e-mail, and hold gatherings for brainstorming.

Don’t disparage bad ideas. When people are encouraged, great ideas will present themselves. It’s inevitable that there will good and bad ideas too. When starting a new project or assignment, even the most enthusiastic and conscientious employees need to understand your direction. To keep moving forward and keep people engaged, clarify results desired.

When people see clearly how certain actions will take them down their desired paths, they take action and make good decisions without hesitation, on their own, by drawing upon their internal stores of motivation.

Is Your POS System Ready For Summer?

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the summer season.  Before the temperature hits the summer time high, you may want to take a few moments to go over this POS system maintenance checklist to make sure your POS system is ready to handle the summer holiday rushes and the summer heat.

UPS, especially the battery backup side of the UPS, is critical to keep your POS system running smoothly.  During summer seasons, power consumption is at its highest, increasing the chance of power interruption in the form of blackout or brownout.  Blackouts are easier to detect but brownouts may not be easily felt.  Power fluctuation could also cause power surges.  Any one of these power outage scenarios could damage your POS system, or any electronic devices that are not protected by a surge protector or UPS.  If you have a UPS and do not remember when it was installed or replaced, you should replace them.  You don’t want to wait until any part of your POS system sustains damage before you install or replace your UPS.

Your POS system is equipped with backup devices and media.  There may be automatic file backups but there is always a removable backup device and media in the form of external hard drives or DVD discs.  This should be your daily or weekly routine to make sure your system is backed up to the removable media, and the removable media is swapped out regularly.  This will allow for the quickest way to restore your system after a hard drive replacement.  Don’t learn the hard way, make having a removable backup part of your operational routine, just like counting cashiers and running reports.

All electronic equipment will have vents for cooling; make sure your POS equipment has room for cooling.  Look at the vents and make sure the vents are clear of dust and are not blocked.  Although your IBM POS systems are designed to withstand the toughest conditions in the retail environment, it is still a good practice to help keep your system running at peak performance.

These are just some of the regular maintenance practices that you should do to better prevent any system down time.  Your POS system is the mission critical part of your operation.  It pays to follow simple maintenance practices to ensure you and your POS systems have a great summer.  Contact an STCR Representative to discuss how the latest in retail hardened technology is achieving extended system life.

Is Your POS System Secure?

Security – it’s the buzz word these days and everyone wants to feel secure.  How secure is your grocery store?  Obviously it’s important to make your store secure from intruders, you probably have security systems to prevent intrusion and theft.   Beyond the physical security, do you know how secure your virtual security is? 

You should know that as a store operator, you are required to follow the PCI guidelines to protect the personal data of your customers.  One of the many things that you have to do is to make sure that your POS software and hardware is updated to the level that is compliant.  This is probably the most obvious step; however there are several other areas that you need to address.

If you have Internet connection, you are vulnerable to Internet intrusions such as virus, spyware, etc.  There are also more active ways that a hacker could gain access to your computer.  The challenge is to stay ahead of these intrusions.  For example, to secure your network a Firewall segregates your internal network from the public Internet.  It has an array of functions and features that protects your internal network as well as providing backup connections to the Internet.  Another option is to have a subscribed comprehensive network security service that bundles hardware, software, and monitoring service to actively protect your network.  Even with all the technology to protect your system, the best practice is to limit the Web access to business related traffic only. 

As your POS systems provider, we at STCR are here to provide the ever changing solution to help you stay up to date.  If you have question on whether your network is secure or if your POS software is up to date, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The Magellan 1100i Scanner

The Magellan™ 1100i omnidirectional presentation scanner is a high performing and versatile data collection tool for a variety of applications.  It uses the latest Datalogic digital imaging technology to A revolutionary External Read Indicator (ERI) allows the Magellan 1100i reader to integrate with other third party RFID or EAS systems for a truly “future-proof” solution.  Datalogic’s Illumix™ intelligent illumination technology in the Magellan 1100i reader optimizes light levels to automatically capture images and read codes from mobile phones, PDAs, or computer display screens.  Illumix technology also provides incredible motion tolerance, far beyond most other 2D scanning solutions, enabling both sweep and presentation scanning techniques.

The Magellan 1100i reader’s compact size makes it the ideal solution for space-constrained environments.  With a precise reading area, it is perfect for hands-free or handheld scanning and helps reduce accidental misreads of items caused by stray laser scan lines - improving productivity and customer satisfaction.  Datalogic’s patented Green Spot good-read indicator improves user feedback by projecting a visual green spot onto bar codes just read.  The additional visual feedback makes it easy to use in noisy retail applications.  The Green Spot can also be used to target a single code from a group of codes or to position a single code inside the reading area.  A comprehensive multi-interface set and a powerful label-editing feature allows easy integration into existing or new host systems.  Magellan Value Added Features such as Diagnostics Reporting, Host Download, plus optional Productivity Index Reporting™ allow management to use data from the scanner to improve throughput and manage maintenance.  In addition, each scanner supports Remote Management Systems to streamline operations and ongoing support across an enterprise.

Note:  Reprinted from the Datalogic Web

Receipts As A Tool

Receipts provide an advertising and branding opportunity that reaches every customer of your store with little to no overhead cost.  In an economy where it is crucial to ensure your business is maximizing every outreach tool, there is no better time than now to revisit the content of your store’s receipts.

After seeing the same receipt messages day after day, it’s easy to overlook the potential for promotion and increased store efficiency that receipts can offer.  Consider the following when reviewing your current printouts:

·         Are customers aware of any online presence or promotions your store has to offer?

·         Is the store offering new products or enhancements that could be highlighted?

·         Do loyalty program customers see the savings and benefits they have received with every purchase?

·         Has your business marketed a consistent message through other venues that can be added to the receipts?

·         Is the store using excessive staff resources on store returns when a written policy on receipts would make the process more efficient?

You may identify any number of reasons to change or update your receipts.  Given the fact that receipts continually reach your most loyal customers and drive business to your store, it is worth the time investment to focus on your message.  Don’t forget, the STCR help desk is here to answer any questions you may have in personalizing receipt messages, call us anytime at (607) 757-0181.

Glen's Garden Market - Washington, D.C.

In April, Glen’s Garden Market opened its doors to serve the DuPont Circle community of Washington DC.  Glen’s is a locally sourced grocery store that only sells products that are grown and produced in states that touch the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The construction of the store was done with all ecofriendly materials and high efficiency equipment.

As a new store opening, it was vital to have a solid POS system to help with throughput of customers. Danielle Vogel, owner of the store, says that one of the great things about the SMS POS system is that it is incredibly intuitive and easy to operate. She also added that the STCR Project Management team and ongoing support has exceeded every expectation.