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The cash register project actually started as a series of research projects. 
Control cash drawer: Indiana Cash Drawer Company
Read Barcode: Aedex wedges
Print Barcode: HP cartridge
new screen functions written by FG and free of copyrights: Z9 function library
new menu system: Z9MENU
prototype data transfer between computers
find high speed modems, eg 2400 baud: Codex
find receipt printers: Star Radix-10
determine how to categorize videos for rental
how to read checks: Aedex
how to process credit cards: hired Jack Howard, who exceeded excellent
algorithms for processing many kinds transactions: used a semi-interpretive method and a token stack

by late July of 1982, the VPs were itching to start and we in DP had made prototypes for every functionality.
The biggest risk was the credit card processing; we were writing new software to talk to Visa in Maryland.
The next biggest risk was implementing an extremely complex business policy.
Fortunately, we had written an in-house program to adjust the transactions for the old store system.
The stores used groups of four NCR registers at $270,000 per group.  They were noisy, clunky, and slow.
By October 1, we had a crude system.  We did credit cards manually by VeriFone; we could process Cash and Credit Invoices.
About a week later, Jack Howard succeeded in talking to Visa.  His software for balancing exactly matched the Million Dollar Day.
Soon after, Ron McMichael demonstrated a successful close of day for our test store.
Dave Doyle designed a better communications module and it worked on the rented ITT data lines.
Ed Kolko meanwhile wrote the many reports for store operations.  Had I met him a year earlier, we would have used COBOL and not HP Basic.
By mid November, the videos arrived and we practiced renting them.
Doug Larson and Craig Bremner filled in many cracks, including the installation and wiring of store systems.
We installed the store in Temple City and Ed baby-sat; we installed the store in Montclair at Ron worked remotely from there.
We met our deadline of Thanksgiving season.  Only those two stores ran thru December
Starting in January, we installed one or two stores per week for the next year.
We shipped the equipment to the store with encrypted Labels, like HW for Doug Larson, or Wires, or Two-Color TV..
The store manager reported the arrival of the equipment.
About a week after all the equipment had arrived, we sent a programmer to hitch up the system.
I personally did Oceanside and Tucson, where I visited my grandparents.
Later I did San Ramon one day; visited Norman and Donna Stamm that night and did another store the next day.
Each system saved FG more than $500,000 per store in equipment costs and increased sales greatly.
Without customer interaction, like the re-input of a day, one register could do several invoices per minute.
For actual sales with signatures, checks, cards, warranties, and bagging, about 25 an hour was average.
Most stores had six or more cash registers in pairs.
The voice over IP at first saved more than $260,000 per month in long distance phone charges.
Kurt Lamb, VP of Tech, later said with all the stores participating and with good training, we saved over $600,000 per month.

For a couple of years, FG was the number one video rental business until Blockbuster passed us.





PCC 1982 - 2014