The two most important ingredients for grocery store or meat market success are speed and accuracy, and getting these two factors right is critical for a deli counter.
Selling perishable items like meats and cheeses by weight can be challenging — if you’re still manually weighing out items and writing prices, you’ll slow down the checkout line and potentially make errors that will lead to inaccurate inventory at best and lost money at worst.
To keep your store operating smoothly, you need a deli scale with a printer that seamlessly integrates with your grocery point of sale (POS) system. In this article, we’ll give you an overview of how to use a deli scale, the benefits of using integrated scales, and some recommendations for top brands and models.
Using an Integrated Deli Scale With Printer: The Basics
Many stores are interested in upgrading their old scales, but aren’t sure that new scales are worth the cost and hassle. Others are convinced that a scale that integrates with a POS system will be too complicated to learn or use.
It’s just the opposite. Integrated scales are more accurate, faster, and easier to use. Here’s the overall process of setting up and using them:
- Enter product information on your POS system (product code, product name, and price per pound at a minimum)
- Connect your scale to the system via USB cable or wireless Bluetooth connection
- Enter the item’s lookup (PLU) code into the scale
- Place the item on the scale
- Print a label and attach it to the item
The label printer will create an embedded barcode using the information stored on your POS system, allowing it to be scanned instantly at checkout.
Benefits of Using Scales With Built-In Printers
A deli scale with a printer might be faster and more convenient, but is it really worth the investment?
In short, yes. The majority of big grocery stores have adopted this technology because it eliminates classic pain points that come with selling variable-weight items.
Still not convinced? Here are four specific reasons why you should invest in a scale with a label printer today.
1. Improves Pricing Accuracy
If you’re not using a deli scale with a printer, you’re leaving the door open to pricing errors that affect your bottom line.
Without an integrated deli scale and printer, your team has to manually input the product type, weight, and pricing information into your POS system or refer to a pricing sheet and calculate prices by hand. This traditional process can be extremely error-prone, especially when your store gets busy.
During peak hours, your employees might accidentally select the wrong product in your POS system or input the incorrect weight. Or, if you’re discounting certain items, you might miss the discount when entering the price.
Ultimately, your customers could end up paying too much (or too little) for their items, and your inventory records will be inaccurate, too.
A deli scale eliminates these errors, allowing employees to see the names of items as they weigh them and then letting the system calculate the price and any discounts. Since labels are scanned at checkout like any other item, there’s less chance of a cashier mistyping the amount.
With an integrated deli scale and printer, you’ll be able to charge the right amount each time while ensuring that your inventory records are accurate.
2. Speeds Up Checkout
Shorter lines mean happy customers, and a deli scale with a printer can ensure that each transaction is a breeze. Instead of letting long lines pile up while your deli employees weigh and price items, a printer keeps the line moving.
Then, when customers are ready to check out with their items, your cashier can simply scan the barcode, and your POS system will automatically recognize the product, weight, and correct price.
A deli scale and printer make the checkout process effortless for your customers and your team, ensuring that checkout lines stay moving and your employees can provide speedy, friendly service to every customer.
3. Creates a More Modern, Consistent Brand
To a certain extent, technology has come to define how many of us perceive a brand. For example, imagine going to a restaurant that doesn’t accept credit cards or a bar that can’t keep a tab open.
Even if you sell high-quality products, outdated payment options and handwritten labels can be inconsistent, making your brand seem behind the times.
Printing labels helps create a more professional and consistent look for your brand, which helps build trust with customers. Labels also include:
- Item name
- Price per pound and total price
- Sell by date
- Store name
- Discount amount (if any)
This kind of information makes buying from the deli counter more transparent, creating a better shopping experience.
4. Support Inventory Management and Decision Making
Items sold by weight, like meats and cheeses, are often the most difficult to track in terms of inventory. Plus, deli products are some of the most perishable goods in your store — meaning that effective inventory management is crucial for preventing food waste and lost sales.
However, effective inventory management is hard to do when you don’t have clear visibility into what you sell. Integrated deli scales help you tackle common deli inventory management challenges in several ways:
- Automatically update stock levels for pre-cut or pre-packaged items every time you make a sale.
- Track weight-based sales, allowing you to estimate remaining weight in inventory and see daily sales volume by weight.
- See what weight of certain products people buy on average, allowing you to make better stocking decisions.
You could weigh a whole item (e.g., a whole block of cheese or salami) when it’s received. Or, for items like cuts of meat, you can put approximate weights for each item. That way, you’ll roughly know how many pounds you’ve sold during a given period.
Whereas before, tracking inventory levels, seeing what items to discount, and making stock decisions was mainly based on walking the store and using intuition, integrated scales leverage data to give you an unbiased, bird’s eye view of deli operations.
Top Deli Scales With Printers
Deli scales with integrated printers are more common these days, but any old scale won’t do. For business use, you need scales that are legal for trade, and integrate with POS software.
Here are a few of our favorites:
- CAS CL-5500 series: This series of scales are easy to use, have easy-to-read displays, and a number of programmable buttons for popular items to make checkout even faster.
- Hobart HT series: Hobart makes a scale that sports a sleek touchscreen interface and can work wired or wirelessly.
- Digi SM-120LL: A lightweight scale with adjustable label sizes and cloud connectivity.
- CAS CL-7200: A label printing scale that includes a full-color touchscreen, allowing workers to choose items by picture instead of inputting a PLU code.
The scale you use will depend on what POS system you use, the size of your counter, and your business needs. We recommend you start by speaking with your POS provider to see what scales are compatible with your system.
Level Up Your Deli Department With a Deli Scale and Printer
A deli scale with a printer is more than just a tool for weighing items in your deli department; it’s an essential partner in keeping your store running smoothly.
With a deli scale that integrates with your grocery point of sale system, you can streamline your inventory management process, ensure the right pricing on every deli transaction, offer the most convenient checkout process, and understand your customers’ shopping habits and product preferences.
Looking to take your deli department to the next level? Schedule a demo of Markt POS today and learn how our all-in-one POS solution can simplify sales at your deli counter.
