[johnep]

Well of course, if you are working in a rival store then you soon hear the old refrain 'Boots have'nt got it, have you?'.

Jesse Boots once claimed to know the stock levels in several stores, when I started in BTC 57 yrs ago, the staff spent more time on stock books than in attending to customers.

They stopped checking off stock from their own warehouses several years ago, and then claim to lose upto £200 in 'shrinkage'.

Smartscript at present does not seem to have built in ordering system and returning from holiday is always a nightmare of o/s.

Most sophisticated ordering system IMO is Eclipse where you can set up each individual product so that gradually a monthly order is accumulated for a short line high discount wholesaler, yet still keep stock topped up in meantime via AAH etc. Owings were very rare in the days before mcs.

An independent I worked for and known for over 20 years put in EPOS in the very early days and reckoned it saved a member of staff and ensured stocks were at optimum. He employed a Saturday boy/girl with interest in cptrs to do a physical stock and adjust levels on cptr. Naturally he is now a millionaire.

Just bought a farm to reduce inheritance tax.
johnep