Open since 2006, City Beer models itself after wine bars, but for beer lovers. The business stocks more than 300 labels of beer for retail and in-store bar sales, but had trouble keeping track of the stock. “Inventory management was a major concern for City Beer,” says Patrick Donnelly, director of marketing at Revel Systems. “They needed a way to track which ones were selling and which weren’t, but they were using old-school cash registers, and therefore had no inventory control or monitoring capabilities.”

On a referral from a microbrewery in the city’s Castro District, City Beer owner Craig Wathen contacted Revel Systems. A big fan of Apple products, Wathen wanted an iPad POS solution, but it had to be able to handle the 15-employee business.

“Many of the other iPad apps didn’t feel like enterprise-level products. I needed a platform that would grow with my business, so I chose Revel.” Wathen also wanted real-time inventory metrics delivered to his smartphone, and cash drawers with multiple tills to separate revenue collected during daytime and evening shifts.

Rapid Deployment

San Francisco-based Revel Systems opened its doors in 2010 as an iPad-focused developer of POS solutions for retailers, eateries and grocery stores. From day one, the company has partnered with APG Cash Drawer. “APG has the best name and reputation in the industry,” says Donnelly. “Their solution is versatile, durable, cost-effective, and a perfect complement to the Revel POS.

Naturally, when the City Beer opportunity emerged, Revel chose APG cash drawers. Revel deployed three iPad POS stations, each linked to an APG Vasario 1616 cash drawer and an Epson TM-T70 thermal printer. “Our Point of Sale software operates on the iPad as the main terminal. This main terminal then communicates with other POS hardware, including the APG cash drawer. The cash drawer connects to the POS system via the printer,” says Donnelly.

Installation took one day, which Wathen called remarkable. “It’s nice to have a POS system that you can get up and running so fast,” he says.

Revel encountered no integration issues, since the system being replaced consisted of mechanical cash registers. But because of the extra burden the POS solution placed on City Beer’s WiFi network, it was necessary to strengthen the network with Ubiquiti routers. Once the system was installed, it took only two hours to train the staff – one hour to onboard the users and another for front-end training.

With the system in place, life quickly changed at City Beer – for the better. For one thing, the cash drawers are now better organized, with separate tills for daytime and evening shifts. “Their old setup didn’t allow for adequate organization of the cash drawers,” says Donnelly.

In addition, inventory management has vastly improved. “Instead of coming into the office and taking hours to count inventory, items purchased are automatically withdrawn and the inventory is updated in real time,” says Donnelly.

New Client Prospects

City Beer’s wireless POS has produced benefits for both the client and Revel Systems. City Beer’s restocking and labor costs have decreased as a result of tidier inventory. “Revel has saved me five to 10 hours a week on inventory and planning, giving me more time to run my business and make better decisions,” Wathen says.

Pleased with the outcome, Wathen has been happy to refer other businesses to Revel. Donnelly believes it won’t be long until the company starts converting those prospects into sales.

About Revel
Systems iPAD POS

Revel Systems provides an iPad POS solution that gives retailers, grocery stores, restaurants and other enterprises the ability to take orders, process payments, analyze sales and track inventory across several locations. The company’s POS technology platform merges light-weight POS clients, state-of-the art data replication and redundancy, industry-leading security solutions, enterprise-level data analytics and reporting, customer-centric scalability and feature customization, cloud-based data storage, and remote software push capabilities to produce the best POS solution available in the industry.

About APG Cash Drawer

APG manufactures a broad range of high-quality cash drawers and other related products for thousands of customers throughout the world. During its 35+ year history, APG has built a reputation as the supplier of choice for highly durable and dependable cash drawers.