The first-ever grocery store transaction using a Linux-based point-of-sale (POS) system occurred on February 4, 2003 at a Hannaford supermarket in Standish, Maine. Unfortunately, the piece at Chain Store Age that turned me on to all of this is only available in the for-pay archives . . . .
Chad mentions this story about a Linux-based point of sale solution being used as a competitive advantage by a large grocery chain.
I noted the other thread in the story. on how networking and bandwidth improvements were making these changes possible. The lower total cost of ownership numbers at the terminal level are impressive over competitive systems, I assume, but they claim to be saving on other infrastructure like servers at the store locations.
In other words, multiple servers were the only way to run a chain store several years ago, but advances in the world of telecommunications have changed the paradigm.
“You tended to put lots of servers and lots of technology at the store level to compensate for limitations in the network,” says Homa. “Nowadays, you have high-speed networks that are fast and reliable and inexpensive. You don’t need a bunch of servers in every store, because that’s an expensive way to go. You can pull technology back centrally and go with a thin presence in the store.” full text here.
Another tidbit was how they went with USB peripherals, emulating a ZeroConf methodology where anyone can replace a printer or other component.
Time will tell if this makes a difference, but as the article notes, stores don’t like to change their POS systems more frequently than once a decade.