Prepared food is the new normal for grocery stores. Quick service (QS) setups — like sandwich counters, hot food stations, and salad bars — have expanded fast in the past few years. The market is on track to hit $1.6 trillion by 2027, and grocers are adding more in-store dining to keep up.
However, if your store offers made-to-order meals alongside retail, you need a system that can handle both.
Quick service software (QSS) helps your team manage tickets, prep times, and ingredient use in real time. From routing deli orders to tracking inventory across stations, it supports a fast, organized workflow during peak hours.
Learn which QSS features matter most and see how today’s grocery-ready point of sale (POS) systems stack up.
What Is Quick Service Software for Grocery Stores?
Quick service software is a POS system that handles fast, made-to-order transactions, like sandwiches, salads, or hot meals, while live syncing with kitchen preparation and inventory tools.
In grocery stores with deli counters, food bars, or in-store cafés, QSS helps staff take custom orders quickly, route them to the right preparation stations, and track ingredients as they’re used. It combines restaurant-style speed and accuracy with the inventory control that grocery stores rely on.
Why Grocery Stores Need Quick Service Software
If your grocery store offers made-to-order meals, fresh food bars, or grab-and-go options, you run a grocerant. And without the right tools, lost tickets, slow checkout lines, and order mistakes can cost you time and inventory.
Quick service software helps grocers manage food orders with the same speed and accuracy as a restaurant. With it, you can:
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Automate kitchen communication — no more handwritten tickets or missed orders.
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Sync usage from the deli, kitchen, and salad bar to track ingredients in real time.
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Enter custom orders once and route them instantly to the preparation station to reduce errors and food waste.
Gain more control with QSS. Monitor what’s selling, what needs prepping, and where bottlenecks are forming — this way, you can reduce surprises, speed up shifts, and keep your busiest zones running smoothly.
8 Must-Have Features of Quick Service Software for Grocers
Picking the right quick service software for your store means looking for tools built around both speed and inventory control. You need something that handles real-time prep without adding work at checkout.
Here are the must-have POS features for your system.
1. Kitchen Display Systems or Direct Printing
Speed matters, especially during a lunch rush. Choose automated software that sends orders straight to the kitchen — whether it’s a touchscreen kitchen display system (KDS) or a printer. Direct routing keeps the line moving, reduces errors, and avoids the chaos of handwritten tickets or shouted orders, so your customers can get their food faster.
2. Custom Modifiers and Build-Your-Own Options
Your system should make it easy to enter and process food customizations, like no onions, extra bacon, or gluten-free bread. Modifiers need to be flexible, correctly labeled, and tied to pricing rules so your team can upsell add-ons, avoid preparation mistakes, and keep the queue moving — no matter how complex the order.
3. Real-Time Inventory Tracking
Look for a system that automatically adjusts inventory as items are sold, down to the ingredient level. When a chicken sandwich is rung up, it should deduct chicken, bread, and toppings from your stock. This helps prevent stockouts, detectas shrinkage early, and enables fast, uninterrupted order prep.
4. Integrated Scales and Barcode Support
Pick a QSS that connects with deli and salad bar scales to price items accurately by weight. It should support product lookup (PLU) codes, print scannable barcodes, and sync prices automatically at the checkout. With scale integration, your team can weigh, label, and scan items in one step, keeping lines short and pricing consistent.
5. Dual-Use for Grocery and Food Service
You shouldn’t need two systems to run one store. Your QSS handles both retail and food service — scan packaged items at the register and take custom orders at the counter, all in a single place.
It keeps pricing, inventory, and sales data connected and simplifies training, as staff only have to learn one system.
6. Multi-Station Sync and Order Routing
Route orders to the right preparation areas based on what’s being made — sandwiches to the deli, soups to the hot bar, drinks to the café. Quick service technology should support multiple stations, so each team gets their tickets on time without confusion, delays, or crowding at one zone.
7. Mobile Ordering and Self-Serve Kiosks
Let customers place their own orders. Whether using a phone or tapping through self-serve kiosks, their order goes straight to the kitchen queue. Instead of taking orders one by one, your staff can start assembling food as soon as tickets pop up, cutting down wait times and crowding at the counter.
8. Combo Deals and Loyalty Integration
Limited-time combos and loyalty programs shouldn’t delay a food counter. QSS lets you preset discounts, bundle deals, and set rewards that apply automatically at checkout. This means you can run lunch specials, upsell drinks or sides on the spot, and encourage repeat business — without adding extra steps to every order.
Top Quick Service Software Providers for Grocery Stores
Not sure which POS system is the best for your quick service grocery store setup? Compare these top options to see which fits your needs.
Markt POS: Best for Full-Service Grocery Kitchens
Markt POS is ideal for grocery stores with active deli counters, salad bars, and hot food stations. It rings up weighted items, tracks custom orders, and connects each step from order to prep to checkout.
Print labels for grab-and-go meals, route orders straight to the kitchen, and keep stock levels updated in real time. Low on ingredients? You’ll know before it becomes a problem.
If you’re running in-store food service and need a system that can handle the rush, track ingredients, and ring up orders from paninis to pasta salad, Markt POS delivers.
IT Retail: Best for Mixed Grocery and Retail Checkout Needs
IT Retail POS works for all kinds of grocery setups — from full-service delis to in-store cafés. Built-in scale support makes it easy to sell by weight, and combo deals, loyalty rewards, and self-checkout are ready to go.
It tracks inventory as you sell and offers your customers numerous ways to pay, including eWIC, Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV).
POSWise: Best for Quick-Training Teams and Custom Orders
POSWise packs a lot into one system — perfect for grocers with active deli counters or fresh food stations. Staff can learn it fast, take custom orders, and send them straight to prep without breaking stride.
Built-in scale support, loyalty programs, and mix and match deals make everyday transactions quick and flexible. You also get complete stock control, real-time reporting, multilocation tools, and even staff clock-ins — all from one dashboard.
Choose the Best Quick Service Software for Your Store
Grocery stores with deli counters, salad bars, or made-to-order meals will struggle with a generic POS system or using separate software for various departments. You need software that supports fast food service and retail checkouts in one place.
Markt POS does both. It combines grocery-specific features with quick service software features like custom modifiers, real-time inventory, and scale support, making it a great fit for stores with varied departments.
Use our build and price tool to get a tailored POS recommendation and quote, so you can run quick service orders from counter to kitchen without missing a step.
by Luke
