You probably wondered what happened to Thelma and Louise—and whether they were still going on road trips. Well, they took a break over the summer, returned to a busy September event season, and are now back in their car, visiting resellers, distributors, shops and restaurants, and exploring more adventures in cash handling.
New to the series? Meet Jef from apg® Sales and Ian, our Solutions Architect. We call them Thelma and Louise because they always seem to be on the road. They share stories from the checkout, practical insights and the occasional unexpected adventure. Company names are changed to protect our customers’ privacy.
First stop: a living legend
Their first mission after the summer involved a lovely bakery, a loose screw and a smarttill® dinosaur.
Let’s call the bakery The Daily Crust. Between the morning bread rush and the afternoon pastry crowd, its smarttill drawer has been counting cash day after day—for ten years.
Yes, ten years. That is a lot of baguettes, birthday cakes and small change.
While the bakers kept baking, smarttill kept counting. But recently, its lid had started needing a little attention. The bakery called for help, and our travelling duo headed over to investigate.
A screw loose. Literally.
The good news? The cash-counting veteran was still doing its job. The problem was with the lid, where a loose screw needed fixing.
Thelma and Louise sorted it out, giving this faithful member of the bakery team the attention it deserved.
For Thelma, it was a moment of ‘eco footprint’ pride. Think of all the modern devices people nowadays replace after three, four or five years. Here was a piece of technology combining precision weighing with the physical demands of a busy checkout, still reliably counting cash after a decade.
High-tech brains. A very sturdy body.
Naturally, a few photographs were needed for the apg® museum. Although, on reflection, Hall of Fame sounds more appropriate. This drawer has earned its place.
The value of keeping going
There is a useful lesson here for retailers, and for the resellers and distributors helping them choose their checkout equipment.
The purchase price is only the beginning of the story.
Total cost of ownership includes maintenance, replacements, disruption and the time spent dealing with equipment that lets you down. A drawer that keeps working for many years can deliver excellent value across its working life.
That is why durability matters across apg’s heavy-duty and smarttill drawer ranges. They are built for repeated daily use, with long service life at the heart of their design. This bakery’s ten-year-old smarttill is a lovely example of that approach in action.
With smarttill, the return also comes from the work it does every day: automatically counting cash, reducing manual counting and helping teams spot discrepancies. When those benefits continue year after year, the investment keeps earning its keep.
Years of dependable service, fewer replacements and ongoing time savings: a combination that is hard to beat.
Back on the road
With the lid fixed and the Hall of Fame photos taken, Thelma and Louise headed off to their next adventure.
Our smarttill dinosaur stayed exactly where it belonged: at the bakery checkout, ready for another day of counting.
Ten years on, it still has plenty of dough to look after.
