point of sale

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Point of sales at a Target store.

Point of sale or point of service (POS or PoS) can mean a retail shop, a checkout counter in a shop, or the location where a transaction occurs. By synecdoche point of sale often refers to a POS terminal or more generally to the hardware and software used for checkouts – the equivalent of an electronic cash register. Point of sale systems are used in supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, stadiums, and casinos, as well as almost any type of retail establishment.

Early software

Early electronic cash registers (ECR) were programmed in proprietary software and were very limited in function and communications capability. In August 1973 IBM announced the IBM 3650 and 3660 Store Systems that were, in essence, a mainframe computer packaged as a store controller that could control 128 IBM 3653/3663 Point of Sale Registers. This system was the first commercial use of client-server technology, peer to peer communications, Local Area Network (LAN) simultaneous backup, and remote initialization. By mid-1974, it was installed in Pathmark Stores in New Jersey and Dillards Department Stores.

A typical example of modern, touch screen, Electronic Point of Sale software

Programmability allowed retailers to be more creative. In 1979 Gene Mosher's Old Canal Cafe in Syracuse, New York was using POS software written by Mosher that ran on an Apple II to take customer orders at the restaurant's front entrance and print complete preparation details in the restaurant's kitchen. In that novel context, customers would often proceed to their tables to find their food waiting for them already. This software included real time labor and food cost reports. In 1986 Mosher used the Atari ST and bundled NeoChrome paint to create and market the first graphical touchscreen POS software

Hardware interface standardization

Vendors and retailers are working to standardize development of computerized POS systems and simplify interconnecting POS devices. Two such initiatives are OPOS and JavaPOS, both of which conform to the UnifiedPOS standard led by The National Retail Foundation.

OPOS, short for OLE for POS, was the first commonly-adopted standard and was created by Microsoft, NCR Corporation, Epson and Fujitsu-ICL. OPOS is a COM-based interface compatible with all COM-enabled programming languages for Microsoft Windows. OPOS was first released in 1996. JavaPOS was developed by Sun Microsystems, IBM, and NCR Corporation in 1997 and first released in 1999. JavaPOS is for Java what OPOS is for Windows, and thus largely platform independent.

Communication command protocols

There are several communication protocols POS systems use to control peripherals. Among them are

• EPSON Esc/POS
• UTC Standard
• UTC Enhanced
• AEDEX
• ICD 2002
• Ultimate
• CD 5220
• DSP-800
• ADM 787/788.

There are also nearly as many proprietary protocols as there are companies making POS peripherals. EMAX, used by EMAX International, was a combination of AEDEX and IBM dumb terminal.

Most POS peripherals, such as displays and printers, support several of these command protocols in order to work with many different brands of POS terminals and computers.

Web Based POS

Web based POS can run it on any computer with an Internet connection, without software installations or updates required. It runs on secure servers in multiple data centers with real-time backups.

The restaurant industry

A typical example of modern, touch screen, Restaurant Point of Sale System

Multi-terminal fast food restaurant checkout counter

Hospitality point of sale systems have revolutionized the restaurant industry. This is particularly found in fast food service and sales. A number of restaurant chains employ systems which use computer networks. In the most recent technologies, registers are virtual computers, sometimes using touch screens. They will connect to a server, often referred to as a "store controller" or a "central control unit." Printers and monitors are also found on the network. Additionally, remote servers will connect to store networks and monitor sales and other store data.

The efficiency of such systems has decreased service times and increased efficiency of orders.

Another innovation in technology for the restaurant industry are Wireless POS. Many high end restaurants as well as casual restaurants who do high volume benefit greatly from a Wireless Handheld POS. Servers hold PDA sized POS systems that take orders and sends it directly to the kitchen in real time. This also leads to happier guests who usually orders more food, tip more and overall leads to a loyal customer. The presence of Wireless Handheld POS are widely used in countries in Asia and Europe but the presence in the United States have increased drastically in the past decade. The reason is that most restaurateurs realize that ROI is easily achievable. Sam's Chowder House, a restaurant in San Francisco, California achieved ROI in one month - while increasing overall sales by 30%. The restaurant used Digital Dining POS software with Motorola hardware.

Currently, POS systems are manufactured and serviced by several firms; see point of sale companies category. Point of sales systems in restaurant environments operate on DOS, Windows, Linux or Unix environments. They can use a variety of physical layer protocols, though Ethernet is currently the preferred system.

In the fast food industry, a number of configurations may be used to aid in the speed of operations. Registers themselves may be in front counter, drive through or walk through cashiering and ordertaking modes. Front counter registers will take and serve orders at the same terminal. Drive through registers will allow orders to be taken at one or more drive through windows and cashiered and served at another. In addition to registers, drive through and kitchen monitors may be used by store personnel to view orders. Once orders appear they may be deleted or recalled by "bump bars", small boxes which have different buttons for different uses. Drive-thru systems are often enhanced by the use of drive-thru wireless (or headset) systems which enable communications with drive-thru speakers.

Tax fraud

POS systems record sales for business and tax purposes. Illegal software dubbed "zappers" is increasingly used on them to falsify these records with a view to evading the payment of taxes.

See also

• Self-checkout
• EFTPOS
• Wireless POS
• UnifiedPOS
• JavaPOS
• ISO 8583
• Point of sale companies category