The thirty second till

A vendor once told me their till only added a few seconds to each sale. Only a few seconds. We were running a nightclub at the time, so I did the sum out loud for them.

One server, one peak half hour, a hundred drinks if nothing gets in the way. That is eighteen seconds a drink, and that includes pouring it. Add thirty seconds of till to every sale and you do not serve a hundred, you serve sixty. Same staff, same stock, same rent. Forty drinks that nobody rang in, at every till, every Friday and Saturday.

Nobody designs a slow till on purpose

It happens a feature at a time. A table prompt for venues that do food, switched on for a wet-led bar. A very nice animation for the change screen. A loyalty prompt someone in marketing wanted. Each one cost half a second in the demo and nobody ever stood behind the bar on a Saturday and counted what they cost together.

What to do about it

• Time a real sale on your busiest till. Phone stopwatch, card in hand to first drink poured. Do it ten times and take the middle number.
• Count the taps. Every tap between "customer orders" and "money taken" should have to justify itself.
• Turn off what you do not use. Most tills are shipped with everything on, and most venues never visit that settings page.

The till is the one piece of kit that stands between you and every single pound you take. It deserves an afternoon of scrutiny a year. Most stacks have never had one.