Groceteria.com

Yep, that is definitely a Pitney Bowes logo---looked like they really cobbled together a cash register setup there.

Remember, though, that Service Merchandise used a strange custom POS system until they quit business with a really wide printer (may have even been 8 1/2 inches wide).

I don't remember a catalogue showroom that did any significant business through a regular checkstand (as this shows) until well into the 80s when SM moved to a more hybrid store format.

Nice find! Those registers were made by Pitney-Bowes/ALPEX. The joint venture didn't last very long, and I believe they were out of the point of sale business by 1973 or so. The system was called SPICE (Sales Point Information Computing Equipment). They also had a Super SPICE, and believe it or not, I'm pretty sure there was an add-on called PEPPER.

Edit: Yes, the optical wand scanning add-on was called PEPPER (Photo - Electric Portable Probe / Reader).

Interesting thing about those registers is the numeric keypad was a 2x5 arrangement instead of the usual 3x3 + the zero key.

Service Merchandise used SPERRY terminals, and assumedly a SPERRY mainframe on the backend.

thatjpwing wrote: ↑14 Oct 2025 16:24 Nice find! Those registers were made by Pitney-Bowes/ALPEX. The joint venture didn't last very long, and I believe they were out of the point of sale business by 1973 or so. The system was called SPICE (Sales Point Information Computing Equipment). They also had a Super SPICE, and believe it or not, I'm pretty sure there was an add-on called PEPPER.

Edit: Yes, the optical wand scanning add-on was called PEPPER (Photo - Electric Portable Probe / Reader).

Interesting thing about those registers is the numeric keypad was a 2x5 arrangement instead of the usual 3x3 + the zero key.

Those registers were an odd design, period. I am not surprised that those were not around long. I am curious though, did any national chain ever use them? The few pictures and the video I have seen of them all were at small, regional chains.

jleyerle wrote: ↑23 Jul 2025 20:37 Yep, that is definitely a Pitney Bowes logo---looked like they really cobbled together a cash register setup there.

Remember, though, that Service Merchandise used a strange custom POS system until they quit business with a really wide printer (may have even been 8 1/2 inches wide).

I don't remember a catalogue showroom that did any significant business through a regular checkstand (as this shows) until well into the 80s when SM moved to a more hybrid store format.

Great Western (which Best acquired) had regular checkstands and was primarily a catalog showroom, but qualifies as a hybrid format also. They did have a limited selection of items in the store you could purchase. We went there maybe twice a year to look around and occasionally bought something. It seemed like they used Data Terminal Systems registers, but also had an NCR system at one point.

I finally found a video with footage of a "talking" cash register, from 1992:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BoqIi9oF44

The first portion is an H-E-B store and has a talking version of Datachecker registers. The register's "voice" can be heard starting at around the 1:42 mark. The later part shows an Albertsons with their typical for the time NCR 2552 registers. While Albertsons, at some locations, did in fact have those registers in talking versions, the location in the video does not have them. As a side note, the Albertsons could be an acquired store, I do not remember that interior being used by Albertsons.

I came across this photo while looking for something else online today. This is a "JB422" register, which looks similar to the JB622 registers PayLess Drug used when they first went to scanning from about the mid-80s until Rite Aid took over. The difference I can see is no additional customer-facing numeric display on top, and am not sure if there were other differences. There is virtually no information out there.

I still am not sure who made these, and have not seen these in any other store. I am curious if anybody knows anything at all...if this was some kind of custom-made register for PayLess and nobody else, or if it was a "generic" register made by a major company.

This technically falls outside of "UPC codes & grocery scanning" but is related....

This post of an old Waremart (I assume this is the original location in Boise on Overland, but am not 100% sure) appeared on WinCo's Facebook page today:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=13 ... 3163890985

I see what looks like an RCA logo next to the word "VICTOR" on the cash registers. It seems like a less common setup, and I am curious if they had any type of integrated system here or if these registers were good for entering prices only. I am also curious if these registers were capable of using the less successful "Bullseye" barcode system designed by RCA that Kroger tested in the early 1970s.

It looks like this was the end of the era when people wrote down the prices on the items, and before scanners. Note the price tags on the racks by the registers.

My first experience with Waremart was in the mid 1980s at the Overland location I mentioned. By that point they had scanning Data Terminal Systems registers in a dual-lane setup.