Card processing, Clover point of sale, and reputation tools for package stores. Set up around a fast counter, a deep SKU list, and the rules that actually apply to alcohol.
Not one of these is itemized anywhere. They show up as thinner margin at the end of the month.
A per-transaction fee lands the same on a $9 six-pack as on a $90 case. On a store doing hundreds of small card sales a day, the fixed side of the fee is the part that hurts.
Wine, spirits, beer, and singles across hundreds of items. Without scanning tied to inventory, shrink and out-of-stocks are invisible until the shelf is empty.
Package stores live on being the closest good option. Most owners have never asked a happy customer to leave a review, so the page is built entirely from complaints.
A large share of your card volume is debit. How that debit is routed and priced is one of the biggest levers on a statement, and it is rarely explained to you.
We start from how the store actually runs, then match the hardware and the program. These are the setups that commonly fit an independent liquor store.
A Clover Station with a scanner and cash drawer for a line that moves. Duo when you want a customer-facing screen for the card price and cash price.
ID scanning at the point of sale gives you a consistent check and a record of it, instead of relying on whoever is on shift.
Scanning tied to item-level counts so you can see what actually moves, what sits, and what is walking out the door.
Post a card price and a cash price. The terminal applies the correct total, so the processing cost sits in the card price instead of your margin.
Automated review requests after a sale, so the page reflects your regulars and not only the one bad night.
Alcohol sales are card present. We set the account up on that basis rather than promising an online channel that will not survive underwriting.
We mean likely literally. Two stores on the same road can need different setups depending on whether the business is walk-in singles or case volume for events.
What you need comes down to how many lanes you open on a Friday and how deep the shelf list runs. These three cover most of the package stores we set up.
One unit holds the scanner, the drawer, and a screen the customer can read. The second screen earns its keep here, because the card price and the cash price stay visible while the basket rings up, and because ID prompts appear where the clerk is already looking.
Friday evening and the day before a holiday are a different business from Tuesday afternoon. A Mini opens a second lane on those days without surrendering much counter, and it runs the same item list and the same reporting as the main register.
When the line reaches the cooler doors, somebody can walk it with a handheld and check people out where they stand. It also covers a tasting table or a case stack set up away from the register, since the customer is in front of you either way.
If your store runs differently from all three, say so and we will spec around your counter rather than around an average.
You do not need an enterprise retail system to run a package store well. You need scanning, accurate counts, and a terminal your staff can learn in one shift.
You post a card price and a cash price. The terminal works out the correct total at checkout, which matters most on the small tickets that make up most of your day.
Both prices are on display before a customer reaches the counter, which is why almost nobody asks about it.
The terminal applies the right total. Your team keeps doing what they already do.
Program setup, signage, and terminal configuration are handled as part of onboarding rather than left to you.
Made-up numbers, arithmetic you can check on the back of a receipt.
The numbers are invented but realistic for a busy neighborhood store, and the math is 28 times 4,200, then 3.2 percent of that total. Effective rates move with debit share, basket size, and the program you pick, so we work from your statement rather than from a figure on a website.
Actual savings depend on your card mix, average basket, and the program you choose. We will quote your specific number from a recent statement rather than a range from a website.
Package store customers are price aware and most of them are back within the week, so this is a fair thing to worry about. In practice the shelf tag does most of the work.
Both prices go on the shelf tag and on the sign at the door, so the number is known long before anybody reaches the register. Complaints in this trade come from surprises at checkout, and a price printed on the shelf is not a surprise.
On a twenty eight dollar basket the difference is roughly a dollar at typical rates. That is a different conversation from a large purchase, and most weekly customers stop registering it somewhere around the second visit.
Somebody buying for a wedding or a party is spending real money and will work it out on their phone at the counter. Have an answer ready and be willing to take cash on the large ones. Both numbers are on the shelf, so it is their call to make.
Cajoon covers the messages that keep a neighborhood store in front of its regulars. Everything it does points people back to your counter, which is where alcohol gets sold.
People call to ask whether you carry something before they drive over. When nobody can get to the phone, an automatic text asks what they are after, and your answer goes back before they try the next store on the list.
A short text after a visit gets the people who shop with you weekly to say so. That changes a page currently built out of one bad night, and the request goes out on its own instead of a clerk asking across the counter.
An in-store tasting, an allocation that landed, or your hours on a holiday weekend. One message to the list you already have, with the whole point being that they come in and pick it up.
Somebody who was in every week and has not been seen in a month is worth exactly one message. It costs almost nothing to send, and near enough nobody in this trade is sending it.
An online application that takes about five minutes.
We confirm the program and finalize the rate sheet with you.
Your Clover devices arrive configured for your business.
Plug in, run a test ticket, and you are live.
Often both, and that catches people out. The processing agreement and the terminal lease are usually two contracts held by two companies with two exit dates, and plenty of stores are paying both without realizing it. Send us each document. We will tell you what ends when, what leaving costs, and whether a few months of waiting is the smarter move.
Both prices go on the tag and the register applies the correct total when the customer pays. Nobody at the counter calculates anything. Retagging the shelf is the real work in a store your size, so we plan that with you before go live rather than handing you a sign and leaving you to it.
Usually. Most USB scanners work, and an existing item file with UPCs can be imported rather than typed in again. Drawers and receipt printers are the more common snag, since some older units use connectors current hardware does not have. Send a photo of the back of your setup and we will check before you buy anything.
No. Alcohol sold online or over the phone is not boardable, so we are not going to sell you a setup that underwriting unwinds three weeks later. Card present at your counter is what we board. We would rather say that now than after your hardware has shipped and your website is built.
It can. A scanner at the register reads the license, checks the date of birth, and leaves a record that the check happened. It does not replace your staff judgment or whatever training your state requires, but it does make the check the same regardless of who is on shift that night.
It should, and it is the part of a statement owners are least often shown. Debit can route over more than one network and the cost is not the same on each, yet most statements bundle it so the choice never surfaces. We will point at the specific lines on yours and explain what each one is doing before we quote you anything.
There is no sales call standing between you and a number. We read your most recent processing statement and tell you what you are actually paying, line by line, including how your debit is being handled.