POS for greengrocers, grocers and corner shops

A greengrocer or a corner shop does not run like a big supermarket: you sell by weight, you serve people you know by name, you keep tabs and you need to balance the till every night without a headache. A POS built for that saves you hours. Here is what it should do.

Weight and scale: selling fruit and veg without doing sums

Most generic POS systems assume everything sells by the unit. In a greengrocer it does not: you sell tomatoes, potatoes or oranges by the kilo. If the software does not handle weight well, you end up reaching for a calculator on every sale and the queue grows.

What you want is to pick the product, enter the weight and have the price appear on its own. Connect a scale and the weight goes straight in with no mistakes. That is the difference between serving a customer in ten seconds or in a minute.

Fast sales at the counter

At peak time what matters is charging fast: by barcode for packaged goods, by button for produce sold by weight, and with change worked out instantly. A good grocery POS keeps your best sellers within reach so you are not hunting for them.

Customer tabs and shop credit

In a neighbourhood shop, credit is part of the business: the regular takes their shopping and pays at the weekend or end of the month. The trouble starts when you jot it in a notebook and then forget who owes what.

With a POS that keeps customer accounts, you record what each person takes, see at a glance how much they owe and collect it when they drop by. No losses from forgotten notes, no arguments: it is all logged.

See the details in our guide to store credit and customer tabs.

Daily cash-up with no surprises

At closing you want to know in a minute how much you took in cash and card, and whether the till matches what is in the drawer. Doing it by eye or on paper is where errors and small losses creep in and add up over the month.

A good POS runs the daily cash-up automatically: it gives you the total, the breakdown by payment method and flags anything that does not add up. You close in peace and get home earlier.

Stock and expiry dates

In food retail stock is king, especially with fresh, dated products. Having each sale deduct from inventory, getting warned when something is running low and being able to track expiry dates keeps you from running out or throwing away food that has gone off.

• Low-stock alerts to reorder your fastest movers in time.
• Expiry tracking so what expires first goes out first.
• Clear numbers: what sells most and what leaves you margin.

Affordable and in the cloud

You do not need an expensive till or proprietary hardware. A cloud POS runs on the tablet or computer you already own, keeps your data safe even if a device breaks, and you pay by subscription with no big upfront outlay.

For a greengrocer, a grocer or a corner shop that is the sensible choice: start with the essentials, up and running from day one, and grow as you need. If you sell loose, see also how to sell products by weight with a scale.

Why Bipe fits a food shop

Bipe is a modern POS built for supermarkets and food shops. It sells by weight with a scale, charges fast at the counter, keeps tabs for your regular customers, tracks stock and expiry dates and runs the cash-up every day. All in the cloud, on the device you already use.

Frequently asked questions

Does the POS work with a scale to sell by weight?

Yes. You can sell fruit and veg by the kilo: pick the product, enter the weight and the POS works out the price. That is where a greengrocer saves the most time versus doing sums by hand.

Can I keep tabs for my regular customers?

Yes. You can record what a customer takes on credit, see how much each one owes and settle it when they come back. No more scribbled notes in a notebook.

Do I need to buy an expensive till?

No. Bipe runs in the cloud on a tablet or computer you already own. There is no costly proprietary hardware: you start with the essentials and pay an affordable subscription.