Honeywell Scanning for Age Verification at the POS

Honeywell’s 2D Technology Enables Automatic Age, ID Verification at Byrne Dairy Convenience Stores

Executive Summary

Byrne Dairy needed a reliable image scanning solution that could work in conjunction with its existing point-of-sale (POS) system and enable high-performance presentation scanning, plus automatic age and identity verification, to improve customer service.

The Business Challenge

Sonbyrne Sales/Byrne Dairy has 58 convenience stores across Upstate New York. For nearly 40 years, cashiers at Byrne Dairy have manually keyed in all point-of-sale transactions. And the only way cashiers could verify a customer’s age for the purchase of alcohol and tobacco products was to run their driver’s license through the New York Lottery machine. It was extremely difficult and time-consuming for cashiers to verify out-of-state licenses, since they couldn’t be run through the lottery machine and had to be checked manually.

These manual processes left room for error, so Byrne Dairy began looking into technology that could improve its processes, and ultimately, improve customer service.

“There comes a time when you realize that in order to stay competitive, make employees’ jobs easier and exceed customer expectations, you have to do something new. For Byrne Dairy, it meant investing in technology,” explains Melissa Burke, Finance/IT Manager, Sonbyrne Sales.

Solution

Byrne Dairy spoke with other convenience stores to research what kind of technology solutions were being used across the industry. After testing products from several vendors, they selected the 4600r Retail Presentation Scanner from Honeywell Imaging and Mobility.

“The 4600r turned out to be the best scanner for our needs. It’s versatile, user-friendly, durable and was compatible with the point-of-sale system we already had in place,” says Burke.

The 4600r provides Byrne Dairy fast and easy presentation scanning at the POS, enabling cashiers to speed up the check-out process, give more attention to customers and eliminate long lines.

Powered by Adaptus Imaging Technology, the 4600r has the ability to read complex linear and 2D barcodes, including PDF417. Currently, 44 states and seven Canadian provinces have a PDF417 barcode on their driver’s licenses, which commonly contains all ID information. With the 4600r, cashiers can automatically verify a customer’s age and identity with a simple scan of the driver’s license barcode—even if the information on the front of the license has been altered.

“Our decision to invest in this technology boils down to accuracy and speed. You simply can’t put a dollar value on the importance of excellent customer service,” Burke says. “Technology is making our employees’ jobs easier and faster, gaining them more time to focus their energies on our customers.”