A queue at the till and a new member of staff
It is Saturday morning. A customer brings a paper bag of loose new potatoes, a few leeks and some runner beans to the till. The new Saturday helper looks for 'runner beans' among forty buttons, can't find it, picks 'veg misc' and types a price from the chalkboard. The chalkboard says one price; the till has another from last month; the price on the scale in the butchery has been updated but nobody told the front till.
By the end of the day, the takings are fine, but nobody could tell you how many kilos of runner beans sold, whether the price on the board or in the till was charged, or how much went in the compost bin.
Why weighed prices drift
In a supermarket, prices come from head office and are pushed to every device at once. In a farm shop, prices change because the first asparagus is in, because a glut of courgettes has arrived, because the butcher has cut a new batch of lamb. The change is made wherever the person happens to be: on the scale, in the till, on the chalkboard. Nothing keeps them together.
- Label-printing scales at the butchery and deli counter hold their own price list.
- The till has weighed items set up separately, often out of date.
- Chalkboards and shelf labels are written by hand.
- 'Misc' buttons hide what was actually sold.
- Seasonal lines are added in a hurry and priced inconsistently.
What mispriced produce costs
Undercharging at the till on your best produce is the obvious loss. Overcharging is worse for a farm shop, whose customers trust it. Prices that differ between the board and the till create awkward moments and, depending on the case, a trading standards concern. And because 'misc' buttons swallow sales, you lose the information you most need: which crops and cuts sell, at what price, and how much is wasted.
That lost information matters when you plan next year's planting or decide how many lambs to send to the butcher.
The single price list we build
- One product list for everything sold by weight or by the item: own veg and fruit, bought-in produce, counter meat, deli, cheese, with a price, unit and PLU or code for each.
- A simple screen, usable on a phone in the field or the shop, where the manager changes a price or adds a seasonal line.
- Changes sent to the till's product list through its API or import, and to label-printing scales that support network updates, so both carry the same price.
- Shelf-edge labels and chalkboard-style printed cards produced from the same list when a price changes, with the date printed small so old ones can be spotted.
- Clear till buttons or a PLU card for staff, grouped the way customers see the produce, with 'misc' kept for genuine one-offs.
- A daily summary of weighed sales by product and a wastage log for what is thrown or composted, so yield and waste are visible.
| Device | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Butchery and deli scales | Prices keyed in at the scale | Updated from the one list |
| Till | Weighed items set up separately | Updated from the one list |
| Chalkboard and shelf labels | Hand-written, often behind | Printed from the one list |
| Sales reports | 'Misc' swallows many sales | Sales by product and weight |
Whether your scales and till can take updates depends on the models you have. We check that first; where a device cannot be updated automatically, we give staff a clear change list instead of leaving it to memory.
A Saturday with one price list
The manager updates the price of runner beans on Friday evening from her phone. On Saturday, the scale, the till and the printed card on the display all show the same price. The new helper scans the PLU from a laminated card or finds 'Runner beans' in the veg group on the till. The daily summary on Monday shows how many kilos sold and how many went in the bin.
Over a season, you build a picture that is hard to get any other way: which crops sell well at which price, which ones are over-planted and how waste changes as prices move.
Is your pricing like this?
- The price on the chalkboard and the price charged at the till sometimes differ.
- Staff use a 'misc' or 'veg' button for many different products.
- Butchery scales and the main till hold separate price lists.
- You cannot say how many kilos of a crop sold last month.
- Seasonal lines are added to the till in a rush with guessed prices.