64
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
Created
for tobacco
retailers
by
a
tobacco retailer,
FasTrax offers
much more
than inventory
management.
L
et’s face it—in this business,
inventory control is everything.
Having too much on hand
means you’ve got far too much cash tied
up in your stockroom. But if you have too
little, your customer just may walk out
the door empty-handed—and may never
come back.
“We never want to risk being out of
stock,” says Darren Schwartz, president
of FasTrax and owner/operator
of 56 Smokers Choice stores (see
Trench Marketing, p. 76). “Inventory
management is huge in this business.”
While true for all retail businesses,
that assertion is particularly applicable to
stores that sell tobacco, operate on thin
margins, cater to extremely brand-loyal
customers, and carry products frequently
targeted by thieves. But the same factors
that make inventory management
essential for this retail channel also make
it difficult. In fact, most point-of-sale
(POS) systems simply can’t cope with
the challenges specific to tobacco retail—
which is how FasTrax came to be owned
by a tobacco retail chain.
“We looked at lots of other POS
systems, but nothing compared with the
one we were using at the time,” explains
Doug Nolan, vice president of Smokers
Choice, recounting the company’s
decision to buy an Alabama software
company and launch a side business in
2008. “Unfortunately, that company was
going bankrupt, so we flew down and
made the owner an offer he couldn’t
refuse.”
In the years since,Nolan and Schwartz
worked diligently to enhance the system,
using their own stores to develop and
fine-tune a robust database platform able
ExpLoring
the
possibiLitiEs
of
pos
By Jennifer Gelfand
