Quick-service restaurants (QSRs) aren’t just fast-food chains anymore. Today, grocery stores embrace the QSR model with deli counters, salad bars, and hot meal stations that give shoppers fresh, ready-to-eat meals.
With the QSR market growing at more than 9% each year, the opportunity to make more money is huge — but with that growth comes challenges, such as managing groceries and prepared food. That’s where a QSR point of sale (POS) system can help, combining kitchen tickets, ingredient tracking, and checkout into one single platform
Learn why adding packaged entrées can grow your store, how QSR POS supports that workflow, and explore five providers built for this hybrid model.
Benefits of Offering Ready-To-Eat Meals
Shoppers are busier than ever and value stores that help solve daily mealtime decisions. Featuring menu items like family-size lasagna trays or grab-and-go sushi packs meets that demand while creating new ways to increase revenue.
QSR-style setups help stores:
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Boost basket size: Pair everyday groceries with take-home dishes, so customers leave with both dinner and their weekly staples.
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Create steady traffic: Attract customers during meal hours with staples and featured dishes like fresh salads, seasonal grain bowls, or hot baked potato bars.
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Differentiate your store: Feature unique prepared items — such as house-made chili or locally-inspired sides — that chain competitors don’t offer.
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Increase margins: Upsell high-profit add-ons like bottled juice, artisan coffee, or single-serve desserts to round out the mealtime experience.
Introducing prepared meals turns your grocery store into a one-stop shop, which builds lasting loyalty and a stronger bottom line. However, meeting these customer expectations requires an organized system behind the scenes.
How QSR POS Supports Your Operations
Adding quick-service meals creates new challenges for grocers, from getting orders to the kitchen, keeping tickets accurate, and processing groceries and meals at the same checkout. QSR POS systems are built to handle it all with ease.
All-in-one systems let you:
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Handle hybrid sales: Ring up groceries, coffee, or a hot meal on the same register.
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Simplify kitchen orders: Route tickets directly to prep stations so sandwiches, soups, or sushi rolls are made correctly and on time.
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Track ingredients: Monitor recipes and food costs while connecting grocery and food service inventory.
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Support multiple payments: Accept cards, mobile pay, and loyalty rewards across every department.
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Enable self-checkout: Give shoppers the option to scan made-to-order dishes alongside regular grocery items in a single checkout.
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Combine reporting: View sales from prepared meals alongside grocery items to understand the full picture.
With a QSR POS, all operations run on one platform. This gives managers a clear view of sales while offering customers a quicker, more seamless experience.
5 Providers for QSR POS Systems
From deli counter to checkout, these five QSR POS providers are engineered for speed, accuracy, and operational efficiency.
1. Markt POS
Markt POS is tailored to the needs of grocers and specialty food retailers. It combines retail sales, made-to-order tickets, inventory, and self-checkout in a single platform. With built-in tools for deli scales and kitchen coordination, it keeps grocery operations and prepared meals running in sync.
Ideal for: Independent groceries and natural food stores that need a comprehensive QSR POS solution
2. Toast POS
Toast is packed with restaurant-grade features like kitchen display systems, handheld ordering, and online ordering integrations. It’s a good fit for stores with busy deli counters or hot food stations, where keeping lines moving during peak hours is essential.
Ideal for: Grocery delis with heavier food traffic or multiple food stations
3. Square for Restaurants
Square’s restaurant POS works well for stores that want a low-cost, easy-to-launch system. It integrates with Square’s payment processing and offers tools for online ordering, loyalty programs, and staff management. Smaller groceries and co-ops often choose Square because it doesn’t require expensive hardware and adapts easily as operational needs change.
Ideal for: Small grocers and co-ops looking for affordability and quick setup
4. Clover POS
Clover POS offers customizable hardware options — like countertop stations and handheld devices — that can support grocery checkout and deli transactions. It includes inventory tools, modifiers for custom food orders, and customer engagement features. Stores that want flexible hardware choices choose Clover POS to match their setup and scale as they grow.
Ideal for: Grocers that need adaptable hardware for both registers and deli counters
5. Lightspeed Restaurant
Lightspeed is a cloud-based POS system that supports advanced reporting, inventory tracking, and multilocation management. Its integrations with online ordering and delivery platforms can help grocers expand meal offerings outside the store. For stores with ambitious QSR goals, Lightspeed offers the flexibility to move into new service areas.
Ideal for: Multilocation grocers planning to expand their prepared food programs
Grow Grocery Sales With Automated QSR POS
Prepared meals help grocers improve profit margins and attract customers, but they also add complexity that can slow down service if not managed well.
Markt POS combines grocery and quick-service operations in one system — from deli scales to self-checkout. Its built-in automation lets you track ingredients, route tickets, process payments, and generate clear reports showing how prepared meals increase revenue.
Design your QSR POS package today. Try our Build and Price tool and create a setup that speeds up checkout while increasing profit margins.
by Luke
by Joel