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T9 "gtore of 1970" here at last! by William D. Power The retail industry is in the throes of one of the most revolutionary changes in its history—the conversion from the faithful mechanical cash register that has served it for almost 100 years to the electronic terminal, or, to use the jargon, the point-of-sale device. A PREDICTABLE CHANGE The "Store of 1970" mentioned in the title of this article is an inside joke at Touche Ross. It refers to the Retail Presidents' Conferences we developed for the National Retail Merchants Association beginning in 1964. The central theme of that program was a hypothetical store of the future full of electronic wonders, and for the next five years or so we presented it many times in the U.S., Europe and Mexico. We called it "The Store of 1970" because in 1964 that seemed far enough away to be "the future." The future doesn't have to be too many years out to qualify in the area of computer technology. With that short explanation, you can understand now when I say that the Store of 1970 has finally arrived—two years late, it appears. But not really, because in 1970 the death knell of the mechanical cash register could be heard clearly. Forward-thinking retail companies were placing orders for electronic units for new stores and planning for the conversion of registers in existing stores over the next several years. When Sears placed a reported $70 million order with Singer for electronic registers (and supporting minicomputer systems) the fainthearted among retailers were convinced that the time had come. Many more have followed suit—almost all of the big names in the department store group—Penney, Ward, Allied, Federated, Macy, Gimbel, May Company, Dayton- Hudson, Broadway. In fact, to be fair, one has to say that some of them preceded Sears in installation, though probably not in preparation. Discounters have not been asleep, either. They saw the electronic terminal as a solution to their lengthening checkout lines, their increasing need for unit sales information, and the pressure on them to offer credit. Barkers, Korvettes, Woolco, Target (Dayton-Hudson), Treasury (Penney), Grandway (Grand Union) and more have installed electronic units and others continue to join the parade. 5
Object Description
Title |
Store of 1970 here at last! |
Author |
Power, William D. |
Subject |
Retail trade Cash registers |
Personal Name |
Power, William D. Adams, Charles Cianca, Bernard J. Michaels, Arthur |
Portrait |
Power, William D. Adams, Charles Cianca, Bernard J. Michaels, Arthur |
Citation |
Tempo, Vol. 18, no. 2 (1972, autumn), p. 04-08 |
Date-Issued | 1972 |
Source | Originally published by: Touche Ross, & Co. |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | Tempo_1972_Autumn-p4-8e |