What Happens When Your Payment Processor Goes Down and How to Keep Checkout Moving
A payment processor outage is one of those operational events that most independent grocery operators hope never happens to them, plan for inadequately, and then discover during a busy Saturday morning when the line is already six carts deep. The processor goes down, card transactions stop processing, and a cashier who has been scanning items […]
How to Handle a Customer Who Wants to Use Multiple EBT Accounts in One Transaction
A customer presents two EBT cards at the register and asks to split the payment between them. Or a customer presents one card, it runs out of SNAP benefits before covering the full eligible basket, and they then produce a second EBT card to cover the remaining eligible items. These scenarios happen in independent grocery […]
What Independent Grocers Need to Know About SNAP Retailer Compliance Reviews
Participating in the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps, gives an independent grocery store access to a significant pool of purchasing power from community members who depend on food assistance benefits. For many independent grocers serving lower-income or immigrant communities, SNAP sales represent a meaningful percentage of total revenue and an irreplaceable service to […]
How to Reduce Paper Dependency in Your Grocery Store Without Disrupting Operations
Paper dependency in an independent grocery store is rarely the result of a deliberate decision. It accumulates. The receiving log started as a paper form because that was the most practical option at the time. The daily sales report gets printed because the manager reviews it over morning coffee. The price change authorization sheet gets […]
What the Difference Between EBT Cash and SNAP Benefits Means at the Register
One of the most consistently misunderstood aspects of EBT in independent grocery retail is that a single EBT card can carry two completely separate benefit programs that operate under entirely different rules. SNAP benefits, which most people think of as the food stamps program, cover a defined range of food items. EBT cash benefits, which […]