In this new blog series, our very own Jef from Sales and Ian, our Solutions Architect, better known as Thelma & Louise, take you along on their retail road trips. They meet shop owners, managers, and cashiers, listen to challenges, and share insights on industry trends and innovative cash management solutions. Names of companies are changed (to protect the innocent… and for a bit of fun), but the stories are real.
Episode 1 – The Day We Met the Master Bakers
It was early morning, and Louise and I were on the road again. Today, we had an appointment at a bakery to talk to them about their point of sale challenges. When we arrived and stepped out of the car, a wonderful smell hit our noses: freshly baked bread and pastries. It was a carb lover’s paradise.
Behind the counter, trays of golden rolls, beautiful bread loaves and cakes made in heaven. Croissants and rolls were vanishing into paper bags; the staff was quick and efficient, but the queue was long with people waiting for their bag of goodness. Most of them paid in cash, small and medium sums, mostly coins. It was tough to keep track of the change and still be as fast as the queue demanded. Therefore, you guessed it, for all that sweet success, there was a bitter aftertaste: cash loss.
The Problem Beneath the Pastries
When we sat down with the bakery’s team, they were open about it, literally counting their losses. Between staff turnover, the morning rush, and end-of-day reconciliations, money was slipping through the cracks. “Nothing dramatic,” they said, “just a few euros here and there.”
Except that “few” had started to add up.
They’d been looking into cash recyclers to solve the issue, the kind of heavy-duty machines that swallow coins and notes and spit the change back out, perfectly balanced. But reality hit hard:
- Investment costs are high enough to make you lose your appetite.
- Maintenance contracts that required specialist visits.
- Shopfitting changes that meant ripping up counters.
- And the worst crime of all: losing shop floor and window space where the real stars, the pastries, did their marketing.
That’s when we brought smarttill® to the table.
A Smarter Way to Handle Dough
We showed them how smarttill could give them the same level of accuracy and control but without the bulk, cost, or chaos.
- It counts cash automatically after every transaction.
- It spots discrepancies instantly, before they snowball into losses.
- It fits right into existing tills, no carpentry required.
- And it pays for itself faster than you can say “Schrippen.”
You could see the lightbulb moment happen. The manager looked at the counter, then at the window full of baked goods and said, “We get to keep the view?”
“Absolutely,” we said.
The whole bakery’s team instantly saw the value, keep the pastries in the window, keep the shop flow the same, but take back control of their cash.
By the time we left, we had two things in hand: a handshake deal and a bag full of still-warm rolls. As we got back into the car, Thelma (Jef) grinned, brushing crumbs off his shirt.
“You know,” he said, “most people go to bakeries for breakfast. We go for business.”
Louise (Ian) laughed. “And carbs. Don’t forget the carbs.”
We drove off, the smell of fresh bread filling the car, knowing we’d just helped “Bake It Easy” bake efficiency into their daily routine, one till at a time.
And would you like to know what happened next? We got to install smarttills in 40 “Bake it Easy” shops! Sound expensive? Well…, since their cash losses were so high, the investment will be recovered after 1 month! This is particularly fast, as typically, our customers report an ROI within 9-12 months.
So, Happy Ending (or new beginning!) after all.
