RICE LAKE
USER: Your Dekalb Farmers Market,
Decatur, Georgia
APPLICATION: Your Dekalb Farmers
Market installed 70 Ishida SR-2000a
price computing scales throughout
the store as a fully-customized (RF
enabled) price computing system.
BENEFITS: The SR-2000a allows
scale operators to weigh, price and
label all of the different items the
market offers with a simple touch
on the scales' full-color touchscreen.
Every scale receives up-to-the-
minute price information from the
store's main computer system, so that
price information is always correct.
QUOTE: "With the SR-2000a scales
in place, we now have the ability
to easily customize the touchscreen
to match our ever-changing inventory."
Daniel Blazer, Seafood Department
Manager .
THE TAKE AWAY
The SR-2000a and ScaleLink Pro software streamline the retail process at Your Dekalb Farmers Market
A State-of-the-Art Retail Solution
for a Cutting-Edge Market
In 1977,
Robert
Blazer
founded
Y
o
ur
Dekalb
Farmers
Market
in
Decatur
,
Georgia
as an
open-air
market
exclusively
for
fresh
produce.
T
o
day
,
this
family-owned
market
has
grown
to
become
a
140,000
square
foot
international
marketplace
that
buzzes
with
the
intensity
and
excitement
of a
city
.
RICE LAKE
Your Dekalb Farmers Market
has installed 70 SR-2000a
price computing scales
throughout the entire store.
A Proud Past and a Bright Future
Your Dekalb Farmers Market offers a wide variety of fresh produce, cheeses from around
the world, seafood that is fl own in daily, succulent meats, fresh-baked goods, beautiful
plants and cut fl owers, fresh-roasted coffees, a large selection of wines, as well as "take-and-
heat" ready-made meals. And because new products are regularly added to the market's
different departments, customers discover something new each time they enter the store.
It even has a cafeteria-style restaurant that proudly serves meals made from the ingredients
found in the market. With such a wide selection of foods and services, this market
easily meets the demands of their broad customer base. When customers visit Your Dekalb
Farmers Market, they know it's going to be much more than a typical shopping trip-it's
an experience.
As Your Dekalb Farmers Market grew, founder Robert Blazer recognized
the increasing need to streamline the process of delivering the items that
his customers purchased on a daily basis. He wanted an easy-to-use, cus-
tomizable price computing system that could weigh, price and label all of
the different items the market offered while receiving up-to-the-minute
price information from the store's main computer system. Blazer knew that
a system with these abilities would not only benefi t the store's entire business
processes, but also enhance customer service. It was a tall order, but
at the 2003 Boston Seafood Show, he found the Rice Lake Retail Team
ready to supply the tools that could meet all of his needs.
www.ricelake.com
|
Bakery
Beer & Wine
Coffee
Cheese
Dairy
Deli
Floral
Meat
Pastry
Produce
Seafood
The 8.4" color touchscreen provides easy access to product information and increases customer
throughput. Customize the touchscreen by simply using photos to create a screen
that matches your case planogram—perfect for delis, bakeries, seafood, or meat markets.
A Technically-Savvy Solution
With its large, full color touchscreen, customizable
graphics and uncomplicated programming, the Ishida
SR-2000a from Rice Lake Weighing Systems was the
ideal price computing solution for Your Dekalb Farmers
Market. Every SR-2000a in the store is RF-enabled. This
means that anytime a scale is unplugged and moved
for any amount of time, no complicated steps need to
be taken to get the scale back online and ready for use.
When the scale is ready to be used again, Blazer and his
team simply power it up. Because the scales are RF-enabled,
they automatically return online and are immediately
ready for use with the most up-to-date information.
No additional programming or setup procedures
are necessary.
Your Dekalb Farmers Market uses a Voice-Over-Internet-
Protocol (VoIP) network throughout the store. Because
the market is so large, Blazer found that traditional
communication methods, such as wired telephones and
two-way radios were unreliable and ineffective. The VoIP
network allows department managers to communicate
via wireless telephones that use the market's computer
network. Now calls are routed and handled over the
computer network, not a traditional phone line. The
VoIP network also enables every SR-2000a within the
market to easily communicate with the central computer
system without the need for additional networking
hardware-the scales simply access the existing VoIP
network for communication. And because the network
is Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) protected, all data provided
from the scales to the main computer (and vice-versa)
is secure.
The SR-2000a's color touchscreen allows the market to
customize every scale with full color photos and graphics
that match the items found in each department.
This feature helps employees quickly and precisely
weigh and price items by simply touching a picture of
the product on the scale's touchscreen. With over 30
different nationalities working at the market, many
different languages are spoken throughout the store.
These visual cues greatly reduce selection errors that
could cause incorrect pricing.
According to Daniel Blazer, Robert Blazer's son and
seafood department manager, "Our seafood department
offers over 100 different seasonal species. With the SR-
2000a scales in place, we now have the ability to easily
customize the touchscreen to match our ever-changing
inventory."
Putting it all Together
By incorporating Ishida's ScaleLink Pro software into
the market's computer system, every SR-2000a is directly
connected to the main computer/POS server.
With this unique software program, price changes and
adjustments are easily made from the back offi ce and
sent to specifi c scales. For example, when a new line of
cheese is added to the deli department, the computer
operator simply inputs product information including
price, advertising information to be scrolled across the
scale's marquee, as well as an image of the product for
the scale's touchscreen into ScaleLink Pro. This information
is then sent directly to the deli scales only.
Every SR-2000a located in the deli department is automatically
updated with this new information, allowing
scale operators to sell this new item without having to
perform any programming changes on their own.
Looking Ahead
According to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Services
division, the number of farmers markets in the
United States has grown dramatically. Over the past 10
years, the number of farmers markets has increased
111%. Your Dekalb Farmers Market is a vital part of
this growing industry. The Blazer family looks forward
to a bright future of serving the Atlanta-area with
the fi nest foods available for many years. The market
prominently displays their "stand" so that every customer
that enters the store knows Your Dekalb Farmers
Market's vision, mission and values:
Your Dekalb Farmers Market Stand
We declare the world is designed to work. We are responsible
for what does not work. We make the difference.
No matter how technologically advanced we become,
we cannot escape our fundamental relationships with
food and each other. The possibility of these relationships
is the world market. In this context, the world
works for everyone free of scarcity and suffering.
We commit ourselves to the possibility this world market
is for the future generations of this planet.
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