Your kitchen may be the heart of your restaurant, but your point of sale system is the brain. A modern point of sale system is more than a cash register and credit card machine. It can track your inventory, help you set your prices, provide information for your chefs and servers about food availability and calculate your bottom line. Some of the newer point of sale systems can even set up your purchase orders based on your current inventory.

Purchasing a point of sale system for your new restaurant is a big decision, but the decision should not hinge on whether or not your food vendor carries the supplies that you need for it. Once you have decided on a point of sale system – or if you have been using one for a while, you will have the ongoing expense of supplies for your system. There are some very good reasons to shop around and purchase your supplies from the vendor that offers you the best price and service.

Why not just purchase your POS supplies from a food vendor?

Purchasing your point of sale supplies from your food vendor may look like a convenient option for your business. You can just tack it onto your food order and have everything delivered all at once. You may end up paying dearly for that convenience, though. Some of the major food service suppliers now offer every consumable that you need to run your business out of one of their catalogs, but it is not always the best way to do business.

1. You pay a lot more for a little convenience. Thermal paper supplies and cash register tapes are not central to the business of a food service supplier. They are an add-on. When you purchase supplies for your point of sale system from a food vendor, you could find yourself paying a significant markup, just as you do when you give in to impulse and buy a baseball cap at your local supermarket.

2. You do not order point of sale supplies as often as you do food items, dining room supplies, kitchen and cleaning supplies. You may be placing daily or weekly food service orders, but you do not order POS supplies such as 2-ply paper and cash register rolls that frequently. It is easy to forget to reorder when you are working with a food vendor that does not remind you.

3. There are many online vendors for point of sale supplies. Buying online nearly always saves you both time and money, and that is just as true of thermal printer rolls as it is of anything else. By shopping online, you can find the best price for the supplies that you need to run your business.

4. Many of the leading food service vendors do not carry a wide range of point of sale supplies. After all, it is not their primary business. The ones that do offer order pads, cash register tapes and thermal roll papers do so as a "convenience". Since it is not their major line of business, they do not benefit from the same bulk pricing that companies who supply business paper goods do. Since they pay more for their inventory, you pay more for it when you purchase it.

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