RFID: Keeping The Inventory Flow Smooth and Easy for Busy Beverage Retailer

At Truecount, we are very enthusiastic about what we do.  Everyone is driven by a shared passion: we want to improve the way businesses do business.   Our company mission is founded on a commitment to help other companies achieve maximum operational efficiencies. RFID is a game changing technology and the solutions we’ve developed are a big part of that commitment;  enabling the most rapid and most accurate way for any business, regardless of size, to count, track and manage assets.

With the focus on business results top of mind, we made an impromptu trip to visit Banana Belt Liquors, one of our terrific customers.    The installation of Truecount RFID at the Banana Belt site was handled “remotely” from our east coast offices.  We deployed our solution without ever setting foot on the Banana Belt premises.  This visit was a chance to see firsthand how the Truecount RFID system was working for Banana Belt’s owner Carla Clausen, and her team.

Banana Belt, an independent local enterprise, is located in Woodland Park, Colorado, an area rich in gold mining history and lore, just below Pike’s Peak. With great visibility, directly on US 24, a scenic main route, it is no surprise that Banana Belt is one of the busiest beverage retail stores in town.

When we arrived the store was packed with customers.  Despite heavy purchasing activity, the shelves remained nicely stocked, and the sales staff handled every request without hesitation.  Banana Belt carries thousands of different brands of wine, beer and spirits in varying sizes.   We were actually overwhelmed at the depth of choices in every category.  The number of SKU items, coupled with the fact that Carla buys everything in bulk to keep prices low for her customers, drove the decision to install RFID.  Truecount’s solution proved to be the most efficient, most accurate and most cost-savings way for Banana Belt to control the huge volumes of inventory coming into and leaving the warehouse.

Throughout the hours we spent at Banana Belt, sales continued at a brisk pace.  When the shelf count for a particular vintage of wine got low, Jenile, the afternoon sales manager, led us into the warehouse to experience the store’s replenishment process.  The amount of inventory stored in the warehouse staggered our imagination.  Cases and cartons were stacked to the ceiling, and covered almost every available inch of floor space.  Yet according to the staff, with Truecount’s solution in place, inventory management is fast and simple.

Using a handheld RFID reader, Jenile quickly located and “pulled” the case of wine she needed for restocking.  Truecount then updated the warehouse inventory data in real time, tracking the case— and its contents—as everything moved from the warehouse storage area onto the retail sales floor.  Individual bottles were counted and tracked without opening the case.

The entire process was quick.  Within minutes, the the precise number of bottles were in place and ready for purchase. We loved watching the flow of business and customer service within the store continue uninterrupted.  Not a single sale was threatened by “Out-of-Stock.”

Truecount’s RFID solution is making all inventory processes flow “easier and more smoothly” for Banana Belt, relieving staff of both the paperwork and headaches traditionally associated with tracking incoming shipments and outgoing sales. We have seen this validated in both research studies and in-store results: RFID delivers the critical data needed for profitable operations, and delivers it fast—in real time—-with 99+% accuracy.

I admit, it was gratifying to see our solution improving operational procedures so substantially for this busy local enterprise.  As an enabling technology that maximizes the efficiencies of all other processes, RFID helps independent and locally owned businesses compete with even the largest national chains. This is important for us, because we firmly believe that small to mid-size enterprise (SMEs) are vital engines of economic growth, whether on the local, regional, state or national level.  Beyond being a powerful technology, RFID is a strategic tool for business growth and profitability.   With this in mind, and to level the playing field for SMEs even more, Truecount continues to innovate faster, simpler and more cost-effective RFID solutions and methods of deployment.

In meeting Banana Belt’s budget for implementation, for example, we developed Remote Installation. This allows Truecount to handle the installation of our system in Banana Belt’s Colorado warehouse from our office headquarters in Dover, New Hampshire, saving everyone time and travel expense.  So far, the only glitch occurred when the Wi-Fi signal for handheld RFID reader was momentarily blocked by the thickness of the warehouse walls.

With our Cloud hosting options, our Remote Installation and with packages such as RFID-2-GO, our portable out-of-box RFID solution, we are placing the advantages of RFID within reach of every size business, helping local SMEs achieve the same high levels of operational excellence as the largest global chains.  That’s why we’re in business, and why we are perpetually enthusiastic about what we do.

If you are in or traveling through the area, stop in and see Banana Belt and Truecount in action: 300 E. Highway 24, Woodland Park, Colorado. Ph: 719-687-9757.  The staff is friendly—and the shelves are always fully stocked.

What can RFID do for your operation? Contact the Truecount team to learn more about the options and advantages, success@truecount.com.