Customer: Ralph’s Supermercado | Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico | Sector: Grocery | Hardware: HiStone HS520U, HS610M, HS710
Ralph’s Supermercado is a local supermarket chain with 13 stores across Puerto Rico. Facing long queues and a customer base that still relies heavily on cash, it worked with HiStone and local partners to modernise checkout, starting at its Montehiedra store in San Juan. This supermarket self-checkout case study shows how card and cash self-service can work side by side.
The challenge
- Long checkout lines at busy times.
- Difficulty moving staff between departments.
- A need to accept both cards and cash, as many shoppers pay in cash.
- A desire for a more modern, easy-to-use checkout.
President José Soto summed it up: “We knew we needed to streamline checkout to keep up with shopper demand.”
The solution
HiStone installed HS520U self-checkout units at Montehiedra, some paired with a PayPod automated cash module from Crane Payment Innovations and some in standard card-only configuration. HiStone describes it as the first HS520U and PayPod installation in the Americas. The HS520U was chosen for its design, durability in high-traffic environments and flexible payment options, and installation took around two weeks.
Project partners
- Girboy Technologies: regional distributor.
- Multi Business Systems: software vendor and systems integrator.
- Crane Payment Innovations: PayPod cash automation.
The results
- Shorter queues and smoother customer flow.
- Self-checkout adopted by shoppers of all ages and payment preferences.
- Staff freed to spend more time with customers.
- Cash transactions automated with less manual handling.
- HiStone self-checkouts now running in all 13 stores, using HS520U, HS610M and HS710 models.
Lessons for UK retailers
Ralph’s shows the value of a pilot store, strong local partners and choosing payment options that suit your customers. For UK resellers, the model is the same: distributor, software partner and hardware working together. Learn more in our guides to self-checkout kiosks and card payment kiosks.
Source: HiStone success story. Details summarised by B-Spoke Systems from information published by HiStone.
Bring HiStone to your customers
B-Spoke Systems is the UK and Ireland distributor for HiStone self-checkouts, self-service kiosks and EPOS hardware. If you are a reseller, EPOS dealer or software house planning a similar project, we can supply demo units, UK stock and technical support. Become a HiStone reseller or contact our trade team.