Why spending money to change out registers is more difficult than you think

In order to replace the registers you’d probably have to replace the entire infrastructure. You’d run into compatibility issues if you didn’t. Just look at the ipads for example. They were brand new devices that were still bottlenecked by old hardware and the software that had to also be compatible with the old registers.

So if you replace the registers you’d have to replace the wiring and hookups for it. Then you’d have to replace the mainframe within the stores. Then you’d have to replace everything else.

Technology isn’t compatible with everything. You can’t just swap out one piece of a complex system from 30+ years ago and expect it to work with something made recently.

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That may be true but that’s not the motivation behind keeping the old registers. If anything that sounds more like something a DM would say to put a positive spin on something bad. “Oh well at least you have more time to pitch credit apps now.”

It also implies sears has a choice to upgrade or not..which they don’t. They literally have no other option but to work with what they currently have.

I’ll say this again.

The longer it takes for a sales transaction, the longer you have to pitch credit.

They don’t care the registers are slow, they don’t even care if you ring up a sale. They really don’t care if people walk out the door with the merchandise.

As long as you get that credit app.

in Hindsight I bet the iPads were meant to me a cheap alternative to replacing everything. The person who had the idea probably underestimated just how big of a bottleneck the registers would be. It would have turned out much better if the system was created to bypass the register instead of just being an extension of it. At the end of the day you still had to sync up the iPad to the register to complete the transactions.

Hundreds of millions to upgrade. Money SHC does not have

Finally...someone with some sense.

The QM organization is gutted , which means that any wiring or register upgrade would need to be coodinated between stores and IT by an outside concern. At this stage of the game , that would be very unlikely.

If the company pulls it out of the ditch and actually starts any new construction , that would be the time to upgrade and begin to write it all off.

I remember it taking months of wrangling just to get somebody to install a new data line to our service desk when they sent out the new hunting license computers to replace the old terminals that we used to have back when the sporting goods counters existed.

I’m not sure who Howard is but I can tell you it does take a high ranking person in the business to figure this out. I worked at sears during my undergraduate years before going into my area of expertise.

Thanks Howard.

Thread regarding Sears layoffs

Why spending money to change out registers is more difficult than you think

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