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I just helped a friend install a iPad POS at his coffee shop this past December using BreadCrumb. We looked at Square Register, but it's rather lackluster featu

I just helped a friend install a iPad POS at his coffee shop this past December using BreadCrumb. We looked at Square Register, but it's rather lackluster feature set ruled it out. Namely, it doesn't support multiple printers or printer queuing (ex. food items get sent to kitchen printer), it doesn't have a modifier system for items (maybe this has changed), and no employee features (clock-in/out) etc.. I would say it's good for a small shop without too many needs. As soon as you have to do funky stuff like modify orders (and report on them), you're better off looking elsewhere. I would also caution people against using the wireless printers and go with hard wired ones instead. I know, wires are not fashionable, but they are damn reliable and predictable. The restaurant next door uses wireless STARs with their POSLavu system(should win an award for worst name), and a waitress there told me they constantly had problems with them, and missed orders, etc. Also, for anyone wondering why these thermal printers are $300+ on a good day, they're built like tanks. I bought all the Epson TM printers for my friend from a bankrupt Chinese restaurant. When I asked the owner if he'd had any problems with them (they self tested okay), he said in his broken english something like "even with roaches, they still print!"... Well, I get them home and start pulling them apart to clean them, and they're FULL of dead roaches. Every empty space inside the printers was chock full of roach bodies. The circuit boards were caked with roach shit and all the feed mechanisms had ingested and ground up the roaches that got in their way. And ever single one of these printers still works flawlessly. So yeah, they're worth the $400.

trxblazr 14y ago
i wonder why that Chinese restaurant went out of business...
dkasper 14y ago
Sheesh, that roach story makes the original "bug in the code" story sound tame.
Gobitron 14y ago
That is the best anecdote I've ever read on HN. Not only funny, but I'm much more likely to buy one of those if I ever should need it. Ha.
iharris 14y ago
This made me laugh. I worked for a POS company in Canada and we've seen ant colonies in Epson thermal printers, and the retailers don't realize it because the printers just keep working.
sixothree 14y ago
I worked for a small computer company in the early 90's in southwest Louisiana. We build maybe 100 computers for the area school systems and stored them in a the warehouse until it was time to deliver and install them. On this day, we were installing some in classrooms with children present. I opened one of the boxes and out runs maybe 5 or 10 roaches. I was mortified. The kids, being from sw Louisiana, didn't even flinch. Some just stomp squashed them from their seats when the nasty critters got too close. Your telling this story made me realize that our warehouse was in a strip mall located next to a chinese restaurant. So maybe this is where they came from.
HeyLaughingBoy 14y ago
* Every empty space inside the printers was chock full of roach bodies. The circuit boards were caked with roach shit and all the feed mechanisms had ingested and ground up the roaches that got in their way. And ever single one of these printers still works flawlessly.* Now that's a product I'd be proud to say I designed. Seriously, that's the kind of bulletproof performance I aspire towards.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  I would never buy such a buggy product :-)
- drfritznunkie 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure Epson engineered these T88-TMs sometime in mid-80s and haven't changed them since. It seems that the only difference between the versions is the print speed due to upgraded processors, but nearly all the mechanicals are exactly the same! Stuff like this reminds me that at some point people really did give damn and that you can still buy quality if you're willing to look. Like when I go to the bank and they're still using a 20 year old Okidata Microline dot matrix printer for receipts. My dad had one for his office that never skipped a beat in over 15 years of service.
  - 286c8cb04bda 14y ago
    > Stuff like this reminds me that at some point people really did give damn and that you can still buy quality if you're willing to look. I agree with this, but it's getting pretty hard. I've got an HP Laserjet 4 -- It's a brute; A beautiful work of functionality which I expect to be able to hand down onto my children when I pass. Hopefully somebody is still making consumables for it then. There are now 20x more products in the same inflation-adjusted price bracket, but most are over-featured and over-marketed garbage.

trxblazr 14y ago

i wonder why that Chinese restaurant went out of business...

dkasper 14y ago

Sheesh, that roach story makes the original "bug in the code" story sound tame.

Gobitron 14y ago

That is the best anecdote I've ever read on HN. Not only funny, but I'm much more likely to buy one of those if I ever should need it. Ha.

iharris 14y ago

This made me laugh. I worked for a POS company in Canada and we've seen ant colonies in Epson thermal printers, and the retailers don't realize it because the printers just keep working.

sixothree 14y ago

I worked for a small computer company in the early 90's in southwest Louisiana. We build maybe 100 computers for the area school systems and stored them in a the warehouse until it was time to deliver and install them. On this day, we were installing some in classrooms with children present. I opened one of the boxes and out runs maybe 5 or 10 roaches. I was mortified. The kids, being from sw Louisiana, didn't even flinch. Some just stomp squashed them from their seats when the nasty critters got too close. Your telling this story made me realize that our warehouse was in a strip mall located next to a chinese restaurant. So maybe this is where they came from.

HeyLaughingBoy 14y ago

* Every empty space inside the printers was chock full of roach bodies. The circuit boards were caked with roach shit and all the feed mechanisms had ingested and ground up the roaches that got in their way. And ever single one of these printers still works flawlessly.* Now that's a product I'd be proud to say I designed. Seriously, that's the kind of bulletproof performance I aspire towards.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago
I would never buy such a buggy product :-)
drfritznunkie 14y ago
I'm pretty sure Epson engineered these T88-TMs sometime in mid-80s and haven't changed them since. It seems that the only difference between the versions is the print speed due to upgraded processors, but nearly all the mechanicals are exactly the same! Stuff like this reminds me that at some point people really did give damn and that you can still buy quality if you're willing to look. Like when I go to the bank and they're still using a 20 year old Okidata Microline dot matrix printer for receipts. My dad had one for his office that never skipped a beat in over 15 years of service.
- 286c8cb04bda 14y ago
  > Stuff like this reminds me that at some point people really did give damn and that you can still buy quality if you're willing to look. I agree with this, but it's getting pretty hard. I've got an HP Laserjet 4 -- It's a brute; A beautiful work of functionality which I expect to be able to hand down onto my children when I pass. Hopefully somebody is still making consumables for it then. There are now 20x more products in the same inflation-adjusted price bracket, but most are over-featured and over-marketed garbage.