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[webny99]

In other words, saying "POS" to a customer is often likely to be a waste of breath because it's highly likely you'll wind up just clarifying that you mean the checkout or the register, regardless of which term is "right."

"POS" has negative connotations that "register" doesn't.

It's one of those acronyms that makes sense to use in written form but rarely to never makes sense to speak aloud. (I would also put most/all abbreviations that contain the letter W in this category.)

[Scott5114]

I had a manager who would always refer to the cashier window at the casino as a POS. I always thought that was strange because outside of the odd keno or bingo ticket we didn't actually sell anything there, we made change and paid out chips and slot vouchers. I stuck with the industry standard cage (and boy it sure feels like one on slow days).

That casino was dilapidated and badly designed enough that I suppose he may have been invoking the other meaning of POS. (There was one cage that was so badly built that people would go home from a shift there with a sore back from having to bend over and stretch to reach the counter. If someone actually had the proportions to work comfortably there, they wouldn't have been working in a casino, they'd be in the NBA.)

I always wonder why those are necessary in modern times?  The line employees don't care about the daily sales forecast and the policy awareness stuff generally gets disseminated through alternate means like email or online training.

I generally preferred having preshift meetings, since not all my coworkers checked their email as often as they should, and it provided a good forum to get clarification on whatever was being discussed in a way that everyone else would get it. (I always felt weird doing a reply-all on a department-wide email, but the alternative was me getting the answer in a one-on-one and then having some coworker argue with me about it later.)

Of course, the preshift meetings we had were generally relevant to the day to day for us, mostly policy changes, a rundown of what events might be going on that might affect business, and goings-on around the facility (like promotions) that customers might ask questions about. We weren't supposed to know anything about coin-in forecasts or anything like that, and we were mercifully spared vapid team-building chants and the like. (In that venue, at least.)

[1995hoo]

I had a manager who would always refer to the cashier window at the casino as a POS. I always thought that was strange because outside of the odd keno or bingo ticket we didn't actually sell anything there, we made change and paid out chips and slot vouchers. I stuck with the industry standard cage (and boy it sure feels like one on slow days).

....

Maybe you could interpret it as "point of service," which sounds like it would have been accurate under the circumstances.

[seicer]

You are more likely to hear point of sale than "POS." But it's all moot because it's a pointless argument unless there is some quantifiable way to validate the statement that front-line workers use "register" more than any other term. I was still surprised to see Target and Walmart use legacy terms like "cashier" and "cash register" on their POS systems - and in general, there were a lot of legacy terms used when I did some interviews in Bentonville. It seemed to be a cultural and legacy bit more than anything else.

[kkt]

That's deeply subjective - "everyone" is not qualitative.

But let's actually use definable terms. A point-of-sale is a device used to process transactions by retail customers. A cash register is a type of point-of-sale device. The cash register has largely been replaced by electronic point-of-sale systems that handle multiple transaction types, such as cards and cash. In a more generic sense, a register is where customers pay, but these are connected to a point-of-sale system.

https://www.shopify.com/retail/cash-register-pos

I've only managed millions of dollars and dozens of point-of-sale components and have been ingrained in retail operations for seven years.

And how are you not an example of an operations person to which I was referring?  Come get me when entry level cashiers and customers start using "POS" as part of their day to day vernacular.

I think a different way to view it is that it's similar to situations in which people routinely use a trademarked term as a generic term for a type of item. The one that most readily comes to mind for me (because my wife does it) is the use of "Kleenex" (a trademark owned by Kimberly-Clark) to refer to generic "tissues" regardless of what brand they actually are (we usually buy Puffs, which are a Procter & Gamble product). I suppose a similar example might be the Seinfeld episode when Jerry says George has a girlfriend, George disagrees, and Jerry asks, "Are there any Tampax in your apartment?" The use of the trademarked name to refer to the generic is not really right, but it's generally a waste of time to try to "correct" someone (though, with that said, Xerox waged a relatively successful campaign against the genericization of their name as referring to photocopiers). I can think of other instances of that sort of thing that don't involve trademarks. For example, to me (and to most people I know) the USPS employee who delivers the mail is the "mailman," regardless of whether said person is male or female.

The other thing this makes me remember is a scene in a book I read in which some characters are sailing somewhere on a ship and one of them says something to the captain about the "right" and the captain says it's "starboard." He replies, "To most of them, it's the right." Then he speaks to them and forgets and says "starboard" and one of them asks what that is; he says "right" and she asks, "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

In other words, saying "POS" to a customer is often likely to be a waste of breath because it's highly likely you'll wind up just clarifying that you mean the checkout or the register, regardless of which term is "right."

"Starboard" needs to be a separate term from "right" because it's from the boat's point of view, not an individual sailor.  "That speedboat coming from starboard looks like it's on a collision course, captain!" means the captain may be looking to his left if he's at the bow.

I'm not sure why "POS" needs to be a separate term from "register".  They're both places to take payment for a purchase.

[seicer]

Point of sale encompasses a "cash" register.

[Max Rockatansky]

You are more likely to hear point of sale than "POS." But it's all moot because it's a pointless argument unless there is some quantifiable way to validate the statement that front-line workers use "register" more than any other term. I was still surprised to see Target and Walmart use legacy terms like "cashier" and "cash register" on their POS systems - and in general, there were a lot of legacy terms used when I did some interviews in Bentonville. It seemed to be a cultural and legacy bit more than anything else.

Of course it is quantifiable, walk by a group of cashiers and ask what they say.  I cannot recall a single instance of a job coded cashier in the past twenty three years using the term Point of Sale or acronym POS. 

[1995hoo]

....

The other thing this makes me remember is a scene in a book I read in which some characters are sailing somewhere on a ship and one of them says something to the captain about the "right" and the captain says it's "starboard." He replies, "To most of them, it's the right." Then he speaks to them and forgets and says "starboard" and one of them asks what that is; he says "right" and she asks, "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

In other words, saying "POS" to a customer is often likely to be a waste of breath because it's highly likely you'll wind up just clarifying that you mean the checkout or the register, regardless of which term is "right."

"Starboard" needs to be a separate term from "right" because it's from the boat's point of view, not an individual sailor.  "That speedboat coming from starboard looks like it's on a collision course, captain!" means the captain may be looking to his left if he's at the bow.

....

Sure, but that wasn't the point I was making (or trying to make, anyway). I've commented on the same issue you raise when I ride the DC Metrorail and the train operators tell you whether the doors are opening on the right or the left at the next stop. While they mean it in terms of the direction the train is moving, roughly half the seats on any given train face backwards (and then you have all the standing passengers).

My point was simply an attempt at illustrating of the use of a term that is "correct," and may be used for a good reason in a particular context, that may not mean anything to the average person ("non-specialist" or "layman") who hears it.

[Rothman]

Will Smith uses the term POS in MiB.  The pejorative is well-known.

[Scott5114]

Will Smith uses the term POS in MiB.  The pejorative is well-known.

Maybe he was comparing someone to a malfunctioning cash register.

[JayhawkCO]

Register, to me, infers that there's a cash drawer, which, in a restaurant setting, is only likely behind the bar and maybe one other POS terminal. Otherwise, POS refers to any other touch screen terminal.

[Max Rockatansky]

Interesting observation today.  I was looking at our cash variance Overs/Shorts reports today.  Our own sales audit staff lists the POS numbers as registers.  I found that amusing since they deal in reconciliation of all tender types.

[JayhawkCO]

Interesting observation today.  I was looking at our cash variance Overs/Shorts reports today.  Our own sales audit staff lists the POS numbers as registers.  I found that amusing since they deal in reconciliation of all tender types.

How much variance is allowed before some kind of documentation?

[Max Rockatansky]

Interesting observation today.  I was looking at our cash variance Overs/Shorts reports today.  Our own sales audit staff lists the POS numbers as registers.  I found that amusing since they deal in reconciliation of all tender types.

How much variance is allowed before some kind of documentation?

Usually sales audit only cares about $100 or more (be it cash, credit or other).  I have a separate report that shows all the cash variances.  I tend to work by the theory that cash theft is done mostly in escalating multiples of $20. 

[tchafe1978]

POS, cash register. Associate, employee. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Same difference. Who really cares? Oh right, I forgot where we are arguing about this at.

[JayhawkCO]

Usually sales audit only cares about $100 or more (be it cash, credit or other).  I have a separate report that shows all the cash variances.  I tend to work by the theory that cash theft is done mostly in escalating multiples of $20. 

Not sure where you work nowadays, but, again, in the restaurant biz, we'd only ever care if the variance was >= $5.

How much variance is allowed before some kind of documentation?

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

Still largely retail Loss Prevention.   

POS, cash register. Associate, employee. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Same difference. Who really cares? Oh right, I forgot where we are arguing about this at.

Clearly quite a few care.  This thread grew several pages once we began to talk about the perplexities of retail culture.  You also responded to the thread and by proxy contributed to it being currently popular.

[kkt]

I don't care about the name POS as such, but I care about the unnecessary proliferation of TLAs.

[tchafe1978]

^^^

Still largely retail Loss Prevention. 

POS, cash register. Associate, employee. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Same difference. Who really cares? Oh right, I forgot where we are arguing about this at.

Clearly quite a few care.  This thread grew several pages once we began to talk about the perplexities of retail culture.  You also responded to the thread and by proxy contributed to it being currently popular.

I guess you got me...

I work retail myself, but I guess I've been in the business so long that how people refer to things like those being discussed are among the more minor annoynaces of the job and I don't really get bothered by them.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

Still largely retail Loss Prevention. 

POS, cash register. Associate, employee. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Same difference. Who really cares? Oh right, I forgot where we are arguing about this at.

Clearly quite a few care.  This thread grew several pages once we began to talk about the perplexities of retail culture.  You also responded to the thread and by proxy contributed to it being currently popular.

I guess you got me...

I work retail myself, but I guess I've been in the business so long that how people refer to things like those being discussed are among the more minor annoynaces of the job and I don't really get bothered by them.

Less of an annoyance in my case a fascination over questioning everything around me, including the apparent truisms.

[JayhawkCO]

^^^

Still largely retail Loss Prevention. 

POS, cash register. Associate, employee. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Same difference. Who really cares? Oh right, I forgot where we are arguing about this at.

Clearly quite a few care.  This thread grew several pages once we began to talk about the perplexities of retail culture.  You also responded to the thread and by proxy contributed to it being currently popular.

I guess you got me...

I work retail myself, but I guess I've been in the business so long that how people refer to things like those being discussed are among the more minor annoynaces of the job and I don't really get bothered by them.

Less of an annoyance in my case a fascination over questioning everything around me, including the apparent truisms.

I feel like retail and hospitality are two of the industries most affected by the "I go to restaurants and stores, therefore I know the intricacies of those industries better than those who have worked there for years" epidemic.

[Scott5114]

Interesting observation today.  I was looking at our cash variance Overs/Shorts reports today.  Our own sales audit staff lists the POS numbers as registers.  I found that amusing since they deal in reconciliation of all tender types.

How much variance is allowed before some kind of documentation?

You didn't ask me, but at the casino I worked at, less than $5 and the casino ate it, $5-25 you had to pay it back (assuming you were short and not over, in which case nothing happened), $25 and up you had to pay it back (if short) and you got a writeup.

I was usually pretty damn close (I was almost always within a dollar) but just about everybody screwed up and had to pay back a $100 shortage at some point in their career. New bills are sticky and not everyone figures out how to work with them. (I was lucky and, for whatever reason, most of my really bad screw ups were in the house's favor so I got written up but didn't have to pay anything back.)

[vdeane]

TLAs

The Last Airbenders?

[kkt]

TLAs

The Last Airbenders?

Heh.  Three Letter Acronyms.

[webny99]

TLAs

The Last Airbenders?

Heh.  Three Letter Acronyms.

And here I was thinking it must mean "Team Leader Associates"