Running a retail business has changed a lot in the last twenty years… and you can thank the good old PC. Today’s checkout line is nothing like it was back in those dark (pre-PC) ages. Point-of-sale (POS) software and hardware transformed the common cash register. Spurred by the PC revolution, point-of-sale systems changed the nature of the sales transaction, from the smallest mom and pop shop to the biggest mega bigbox conglomerate store…

Sales data is instantaneously captured, as credit transactions are authorized and inventory levels are updated. As consumers, we often take these point-of-sale systems for granted, stopping only to grumble about them when they don’t perform as quickly as we’d like.

When compared to the the laborious checkout lines I remember from childhood, today’s point-of-sale systems operate in the blink of an eye.

I nostalgically recall standing at the counter in the neighborhood hardware store, as the owner tediously wrote up each receipt by hand. And I remember the day I first saw a bar code scanner in action at the local supermarket. What a marvel of engineering!

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