Walk into a grocery store or your neighborhood specialty market today and you'll see the basics of a high level point of sale system: bar code scanners, thermal receipt printers, cash drawers, pole displays, and cashier work stations. But what sets this high-traffic, speed-oriented industry apart from other point of sale users is the need for fast and accurate scanning combined with precise weighing of products. That means you'll also want the best scanner and scale combination, capable of maintaining a high level of check-out speed without sacrificing accuracy.
When putting together a grocery store point of sale system, the choice of hardware and software is based on whether the store will include just one lane or multiple lanes for customer checkout. When building a single-lane system, you'll need just a stand-alone POS, while multiple lanes will require a networked system with each lane tied into the system. During the hardware selection process, each part must be configured to communicate with every other piece in the system.
Here's a short primer on the different components generally included when assembling a grocery POS system.
Grocery POS system components
Scanner/Scale: The scanner and scale, or platter, as it's often called, sets grocery store POS systems apart from those used in other industries. The scanner/scale combines a highly sensitive scale used for produce, bulk foods, and other items sold by the pound, with a laser bar code scanner.
Read more here: The Point of Sale News
