It’s December already and holidays are coming, impacting consumers and business owners alike. While Adam Equipment can’t provide you with the perfect gift list or the best recipes, we can provide tips on how weighing scales may help you reduce the holiday stress to ensure you enjoy yourself as much as possible.
Scales and balances are present in a wide variety of industries from laboratories, to warehouses and kitchens, and have varied functions and software to meet the needs of users. Whether to ensure consumers pay a fair price for goods, or to increase efficiency during inventory taking, professional weighing equipment offers many advantages during the holiday season.
1. Weigh your luggage before traveling
This one may seem obvious, but there are many people who do not weigh their luggage before traveling. This can cause nasty surprises like incurring extra costs, having to toss valuable goods out of their belongings, or needing to reorganize the entire family’s luggage to stay within the acceptable limit. And of course, don’t forget that you might come back with more items than when you left, or that you’ll pack differently because of dirty laundry.
Another good reason to weigh your luggage is for your own health. Prevent pain and soreness that aggravate your stress levels. Make sure you and your loved ones are not carrying too much weight, especially if you’re going to be carrying backpacks and purses during a long trip.
Furthermore, the airport’s luggage scales are not always accurate. While they have to pass certifications and should be calibrated routinely, wear and tear from frequent use or skipped maintenance can affect the results. If you’re a frequent traveler, a compact bench scale like the CPWplus can be useful; they don’t take up too much space, and they can be charged with a USB power source. Make sure your own weighing scale is properly calibrated and accurate before taking the measurements.
2. Use a scale in your kitchen
Make sure your holiday recipes are perfect by using a food scale like the Astro to weigh ingredients. Not only are mass measurements much more accurate that using volume measurements, it also ensures your recipes stay consistent throughout the seasons. Another plus is that you can use recipes from different countries without having to go through painful conversions every time. You can also use portioning scales to maintain your weight and avoid the holiday weight gain, or just to make sure all your guests get a fair amount. It is also faster than using measuring cups, and less messy. Ideal for holiday cooking!
While inexpensive digital kitchen scales are everywhere, be careful. Some food scales have sleek design but are difficult to clean without leaving streaks, and are not sealed to keep out messy ingredients. Why spend the extra money on a more expensive food scale if you don’t cook large batches? Some food weighing scales are waterproof, making them a cinch to wash. Make sure to check the capacity and how user friendly the scale is (no one wants to fight with technology when the entire family is waiting for food or worse, during dinner rush at a restaurant). Make sure the display is easy to see when cooking even in hectic conditions or with a bowl’s shadow over it. In commercial kitchens, make sure your scale and other kitchen equipment is ready to handle the influx of customers, and consider upgrading if it can’t keep up.
3. Weigh parcels before sending them
Chances are you’ll have to send something in the mail or through a carrier, whether it’s a card, presents, or candy. Or perhaps your business is picking up and you have to ship more things. Weighing your parcels before sending them can help you select the most cost-effective shipping method, so you can plan your spending accordingly.
When shipping items, be sure to weigh the entire shipment, packaging included. A light item could be fragile, requiring a lot of extra weight in the protective material meant to cushion it. For a business owner, packaging weight and its associated costs can add up considerably.
Stay on top of your budget and know how much you’re spending this holiday season. You can avoid being overcharged on shipping by knowing the weight of your packages. If you pass along shipping costs, weighing orders ensures you charge your customers a fair price for shipping and handling. It’s also useful to know the costs if you’re shipping things at different time. Can you afford to send things via overnight shipping or should you send them well in advance? Latitude compact bench scales offer an affordable option for weighing envelopes or small packages. They’re easy to use and feature a long battery life.
4. Keep track of your inventory
Counting scales can save businesses a lot of time and hassle, particularly if you have a lot of small individual pieces in your inventory. Our CCT scales include parts counting features that provide a welcome break from tedious manual counting. They can store up to 140 PLUs, which can speed up various tasks.
Want to learn more about scales and inventory management? We have the perfect blog post for you.
5. Use scales to checkweigh gift bags
Whether it’s a secret Santa, holiday specials or just stocking stuffers, you want to ensure everyone gets the same amount of goodies. A checkweighing scale like our new Cruiser can help you create gift bags that all weigh the same, filling bags or containers with the right amount of goods ensures satisfaction in customers and loved ones alike.
Checkweighing scales are ideal for celebrations such as Halloween where a lot of people are getting small sweets, or markets and festivals where food stalls can sell bags of bite sized foods. Some of our checkweighing and counting scales even have colored LED displays to see if the gift bags are ready at a glance.
Finding the best weighing scale for your needs
Adam Equipment offers professional scales that can make your business more efficient or make your life easier. We have trade approved and counting scales for retail and other commercial ventures. If you are looking for a postal scale for shipping small items and cards, a compact scale will suffice. If you’re shipping heavy gifts, a bench scale or other or parcel scale types might be more appropriate. Our compact food scales are great for small kitchens and little cafes, while our washdown scales can handle the busiest restaurants and biggest family dinners. We have a wide selection of industrial counting scales, from small bench scales to weighing indicators that can fit the biggest platforms for large warehouses.
Feel free to contact us for more information or for help choosing the right scale for your needs.