Problem with multi / combined item sale

[actinico]

Hi
I have a problem regarding the sale of multi items.

Example: I purchase boxes of coloured paper and sell them in tens mixed.

This means when I purchase them they all have a different order codes and barcodes - how do I get out of this?

I thought to create an item only (and create a button as well) called A4160 (A4 paper 160g/mg - 10 mixed coloured sheets) and then add all barcodes under the same 'created item' but then what happens to the barcoded items within this sale? how does EPOS count them out not knowing which one is which? I certainly cannot barcode each sheet for obvious reasons.

Customers can choose a choice of mixed coloured sheets sold in tens - ex. 2 yellow, 3 red, 5 white.

Thanks

[Mark Evenden]

There inevitably has to be some compromise and improvisation when implementing modern day techniques with older traditional shopping behaviour.

We have run a pet / aquatic shop and I was bought up with "loose weigh outs" - "mix and match" but all of that is old hat now as modern technology and practises are exposing its short comings.

EPOS is a modern approach to shopping and managing your time and resources - for example we used to pay a full time wage to somebody just to weigh out the goods and stack them on the shelf, for sure the margin is better than buying the same goods pre packed, but pre-packed goods have proper labelling, look good and get manufacturers support (FREE SUPPORT .lol)

We have taken the opportunity to further catch up with modern times as we installed the EPOS by discarding many lines - every thing is now pre-packed, anything we make up ourselves from components ie a fish tank set up is given a barcode.

As for buying 10 sheets of loose card / paper or what ever, well I understand the attraction for both the customer and retailer, but if you don’t offer it they cant have it! and they soon get used to it... Why not simply make up a selection of multi packs and code them yourself?

The last thing I want to appear to be saying is "take it or leave it" either here or more importantly to my customers, but there comes a time when everyone has to evaluate if they are spending their time constructively and efficiently. The large retailers tend to sell what they want, how they want to sell it….The counter argument is of course that a small retailers strength is in their ability to react quickly and offer a personal service – well yes and no for me, how many times a day do I hear “its cheaper at Tescos”

[actinico]

Oh, yes I perfectly agree and I already am getting rid of a lot if not all loose/mixed items.
I have been using computers since the beginning of them and I can only agree.

I have already set a pack and a price.

What I am probably going to do is to use 2x barcodes only relative to the type of paper (weight) and pre-pack a ten sheet pack (2 of each) and a ten sheet same colour.

That should overcome most of requests - hopefully!

Strangely enough I have not started to use EPOS to sell yet!
No, I am not slow, it is just that I want a (near perfection) start and get rid of old items and at the same time reshape our shop.

Pheew!! A lot to do, but I am nearly there.

[Mark Evenden]

We have had a problem pop up, sort of similar.

We sell John Innes Compost, its in 25 ltr bags and there are four variants, JI 1, JI 2, JI 3 and JI seed, all with their own bar codes and supplied on pallets of 100 singles,

But the manufacturer runs a promotion of "any four 25 ltr bags for £10" - not a problem to us customer buys 4 x NO1, but does create a problem if somebody selects 2 x NO1, 1 x NO3, 1 X seed.

Ive sussed out how to use the promotions facility that was causing me problems last week, but cant see a way around the above. Its not the end of the world as we have just the one lorry load each year and when its gone its gone, so there are no reordering issues. But formatting this till sort of "gets you"