SAVANNAH, Ga. — Greg Parker’s employees just got smarter–with help from a couple of peripherals. Where other convenience store cashiers may or may not remember the marketing calendar and what item to push, Parker’s employees consistently upsell promotions and affinity products that are based on sales history, market-basket analysis and even time of day. [Watch the related CSPTV video in this issue of CSP Daily News.]

Forever intent on increasing sales and margin, Parker’s focus these days is on customer service. He is testing a hardware-software solution at the point-of-sale (POS) that simultaneously prompts cashiers to suggest the proper affinity or marketing-calendar promotion, while the customers see a visual of that same promotion on a digital screen.

“Our No. 1 expense is people,” the president of Parker Cos., a 21-store chain out of Savannah, Ga., told CSP Daily News. “We’d better be sure to pay a lot of attention to sales per labor dollar and sales per labor hour.”

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