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Seems like a lot of effort to get one umvi to shop at their store. They will likely have to push this out across an entire chain. I see your point, but I don't

Seems like a lot of effort to get one umvi to shop at their store. They will likely have to push this out across an entire chain. I see your point, but I don't think the average user will care about this, and it would be a huge cost to get a handful of like minded people. The cost will be huge because nothing like this would ever be free/cheap.

lallysingh 7y ago
If you're worried about competition, this is a way to make customers happier without reducing your prices or primary costs -- just a software update on the register.
- mbrumlow 7y ago
  I think that is easy for much of the HN crowd to say -- where things like updates are a daily occurrence. But I think the world of POS systems is much slower, and requires a lot of testing and read tape to make even a simple change. I think the cost of updating some of these systems would be much more than one might think -- and many of them probably will require hardware changes. The point I am trying to make is -- updating the format of the receipt across a fleet of POS systems is probably very expensive. We have not even factored in the cost of what looks like extra ink, ware and tare adding graphics. It all adds up and is a big cost for something that 90+% of the time finds its self in the garbage.
  - Faark 7y ago
    Not US (so correct me if wrong), but the CVS receipt sees to be its own meme, making me doubt ink and paper are a significant factor. And no one is expecting them to change there usual roll-out process for such a change.
stagger87 7y ago
What exactly do you think would be costly and huge about this?
- JetSpiegel 7y ago
  Other than changing a core system across hundreds of stores, being held up by scotch tape, prayers and manual processes? Some ungodly mix of obsolete tech like Oracle DB, unsupported Microsoft fad from decades ago, crap hardware? Gargantuan codebases without version control? This is all real-world examples I have personally witnessed in the field, I'm not a greying veteran. I saw a country-wide costumer-facing e-commerce site displaying the wrong prices for days because the ElasticSearch cache was being manually updated daily by someone who was on her probation period, not even a proper employee yet. She ran that job manually daily for months, including weekends, holidays, etc, until her father died and the production site was in stasis for that time. I'm pretty sure this was never ackknowledged oficially and she is still there earning about 1000€ per month.
- lozenge 7y ago
  My local doesn't even print accurate unit prices due to shrinkflation and incorrect information from distributers. And it's a national chain. This feature also ties up customer service time on categorisation corrections (some accurate, some not) and reduces your ability to accept changes to the POS developed by its supplier.

lallysingh 7y ago

If you're worried about competition, this is a way to make customers happier without reducing your prices or primary costs -- just a software update on the register.

mbrumlow 7y ago
I think that is easy for much of the HN crowd to say -- where things like updates are a daily occurrence. But I think the world of POS systems is much slower, and requires a lot of testing and read tape to make even a simple change. I think the cost of updating some of these systems would be much more than one might think -- and many of them probably will require hardware changes. The point I am trying to make is -- updating the format of the receipt across a fleet of POS systems is probably very expensive. We have not even factored in the cost of what looks like extra ink, ware and tare adding graphics. It all adds up and is a big cost for something that 90+% of the time finds its self in the garbage.
- Faark 7y ago
  Not US (so correct me if wrong), but the CVS receipt sees to be its own meme, making me doubt ink and paper are a significant factor. And no one is expecting them to change there usual roll-out process for such a change.

stagger87 7y ago

What exactly do you think would be costly and huge about this?

JetSpiegel 7y ago
Other than changing a core system across hundreds of stores, being held up by scotch tape, prayers and manual processes? Some ungodly mix of obsolete tech like Oracle DB, unsupported Microsoft fad from decades ago, crap hardware? Gargantuan codebases without version control? This is all real-world examples I have personally witnessed in the field, I'm not a greying veteran. I saw a country-wide costumer-facing e-commerce site displaying the wrong prices for days because the ElasticSearch cache was being manually updated daily by someone who was on her probation period, not even a proper employee yet. She ran that job manually daily for months, including weekends, holidays, etc, until her father died and the production site was in stasis for that time. I'm pretty sure this was never ackknowledged oficially and she is still there earning about 1000€ per month.
lozenge 7y ago
My local doesn't even print accurate unit prices due to shrinkflation and incorrect information from distributers. And it's a national chain. This feature also ties up customer service time on categorisation corrections (some accurate, some not) and reduces your ability to accept changes to the POS developed by its supplier.