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QSR ordering, biometric payment figure prominently at NACStech

The eleventh annual technology showcase hosted by the National Association of Convenience Stores offered some powerful tools for the c-store operator, many of them customer-facing.

May 23, 2005 by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center is a sprawling place, a world within the world of Nashville, Tenn. While visitors leisurely strolled through the stores and restaurants of the multi-tiered facility (carefully climate-controlled, although designed to give the appearance of being open-air), thousands of movers and shakers from the c-store world jostled through the exhibit space below, seeing what new innovations they might take home to improve their businesses.

While firm attendance numbers were not available as of this writing, NACS director of public affairs Jeff Lenard said that last year's show saw 1,300 visitors, "and we will outpace that this year." This year's show boasted 120 exhibitors, 40 of which were plying their wares for the first time; the exhibit space occupied about 20,000 square feet, which according to Lenard is a 2 percent growth from last year.

Much of the tech on display was aimed at back-office and fuel-management operations. This is not surprising, according to Lenard, given the razor-thin margins c-store operators have on fuel sales. "Seventy percent of a c-store's sales are fuel, but it only represents 30 percent of their profit," he said.

Those low numbers are also the impetus behind the drive to move customers into the store; pay-at-the-pump has revolutionized self-service gasoline, but it has also drastically taken a bite out of in-store sales.

IDS Engineering's solution for Thorntons/SubWorks

So it's not surprising to see the number of companies jockeying to provide a self-service solution that ties in with the c-store's quick-serve restaurant or deli. There were several touchscreen food-ordering solutions on display, including an impressive holistic solution from Louisville, Ky.-based IDS Engineering. The package consists of a 40-inch plasma display for the store (a smaller unit was used for the demo), a touchscreen menu with photos of all food offerings, and a flat-panel back-end display for the food prep area. The system is currently at work in the Thorntons SubWorks restaurant concept.

The RMS unit, with hardware by NCR, allows customers to preview the sandwich they're "building."

One of the more visually striking QSR products was offered by Fort Lee, N.J.-based RMS Touch, which was on display at the NCR booth. The RMS-Kiosk, a bright red unit with barcode scanner on the bottom for optional price-lookup modules, shows a visual representation of the sandwich that the customer is "building."

Radiant Systems was also on hand with a number of QSR applications, including its offering for the enormous Sheetz c-store concept.

Several vendors were showcasing their fingerprint payment systems, notably Pay By Touch and bioPay. In both cases, customers perform an initial sign-up, and then are able to make payments at the POS with a simple scan of their fingers. Both solutions boast reduced transaction costs for the c-store, plus the added benefit of quicker checkout times. An integrated demo of the Pay By Touch system was on display at the Radiant Systems booth.

Touch-n-Buy's prepaid product sales unit

Prepaid sales were also well represented, with a particularly engaging model offered by Miami, Fla.-based Touch-n-Buy. The company's bright red model allows storeowners to sell any number of prepaid products and services, from cards to cellular handsets; customers can view products side-by-side to compare per-minute rates and other costs. A small-footprint thermal card printer prints all purchases on the spot, on a small blank card that can be branded with a company message or ad on the back. In the case of cellular handset sales, the printed card includes a toll-free number to arrange delivery of the phone itself, so the c-store does not have to stock any product.

According to Lenard, the ultimate goal of all of these products - and of c-stores themselves - is to save just a little bit of the one thing we all lack.

"It doesn't matter if you're selling gas or chips or cigarettes - ultimately, what you're really selling is time," he said. "Everybody is competing against everybody, and if you don't get more efficient, you're going to have a hard time competing with those who are. And when you really look at it, everybody sells convenience - I mean, Home Depot now sells drinks at the register. Everybody is selling time."

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