During the harvest season, farmers markets have an array of fresh produce, from crisp peppers to fat pumpkins perfect for pie. Weighing scales are typically used to determine the price of produce at farmers markets to keep each transaction fair. Therefore, having an accurate and reliable weighing scale is crucial. This blog will examine the top five ways the trade-approved Swift Price Computing Retail Scale benefits farmers markets and helps them thrive.

1.   Accurate Weighing and Pricing for Fresh Produce

Legally, when you price an item according to its weight, you must use a trade-approved scale. There are many kinds of trade-approved scales suitable for different purposes. The Swift is a highly accurate NTEP (US), EC (UK), and NRCS (South Africa)-approved weighing scale specifically designed with price computing capabilities, perfect for a farmers market. Trade approval is an extra certification that helps to guarantee accuracy, which is crucial when dealing with money.

2.   PLUs Promote Efficiency and Save Time

Imagine that it’s peak harvest season and your farmers market is filled with customers eagerly filling their baskets with fresh produce. In a case like this, you want your check-out process to be as quick and efficient as possible. Swift’s 161 PLUs help streamline each transaction so you’re on to the next person in line in no time.

PLU stands for Price Look-Up, and they’re essentially a scale’s memory bank. You can store the unit price per specific unit of weight of your best-selling products by assigning them a PLU number. Let’s say a customer comes up to the scale to purchase five juicy red apples. All you need to do is type in the PLU number that you’ve assigned to apples, which will be between 1 and 161. That number will recall that apples are $1.29 per pound, so when you place all five apples on the scale, it will automatically be able to calculate an exact total for the customer to pay.

If you have more products than available PLUs, not to worry. You can enter the price per pound and the scale will calculate the total without a PLU! Reduce the risk of errors that result from manually performing the math yourself – phew!

With the Swift, you’ll be able to handle more customers in less time, with less stress – the Swift earns its name!

3.   Ensures Transparent Transactions

Building a relationship with customers is extremely important if you want to form a loyal clientele and keep them returning to your farmers market year after year. One way to keep them coming back is by being as transparent and honest as possible. With three displays on both the front and rear of the scale, the Swift allows both you and the customer to see the unit price, weight, and price to pay. Should any mistakes or discrepancies occur, two people are aware of the issue and can work on a solution.

4.   Easily Portable

Most farmers markets take place in the great outdoors, and electricity may not always be readily available. Swift is a portable retail scale, with a rechargeable battery that offers 90 hours of service before a recharge. If necessary, the Swift can travel with you, whether it’s to a whole new location or just across the market. Models without pillars even offer a hard carry case that you can include as an optional accessory! This makes both storage and transportation easier.  

This flexibility is highly convenient when the farmers market is mobile, or electricity is scarce. The show must go on!

5.   Connects to Printers and PCs

Our Swift Price Computing Retail Scale can easily connect to a printer or PC. Printers like the AIP Impact Printer allow you to print receipts that you can provide a customer. You can also print a copy to keep for your own records. To do this, you would need to set up your preferred parameters on the internal software. For example, with the ATP formatting option, you can choose to include several types of information. This includes the date, user ID, scale ID, time, PLU number, net weight, tare weight, gross weight, unit price and total. Wow! Then, hit Print. Record keeping has never been easier!

 

Want to make some changes to your business model but don’t know where to start? Connecting the Swift to programs such as Adam DU via the RS-232 interface helps you really dig into the numbers. Adam DU can collect data and place it in graphs, as well as perform mathematical statistical analysis. The Swift and Adam DU duo can’t be beat. You’ll be able to compare data across time, determining your best and worst-selling products, your busiest time of day, or even month. Any decisions you make will be backed by data. This means you’ll know you’re making the right moves to secure a profit for your farmers market.

 

Utilizing the Swift Price Computing Retail Scale will benefit your farmers market tremendously, so make the swift decision to get a quote today. If you have any questions or would like more information, contact us and we’ll be happy to help!