All check-out information is collected at 9 p.m. each evening and sent to the stock control system (SPR) for processing. The system updates stock information, sends out purchase orders as necessary and sends back reports and price changes back to the Northallerton branch. The reports are printed overnight. Deliveries take two days top arrive at the store after having being ordered.

Speeding up processing.

Each check out till had a 'local' memory of the top 3,000 purchases in order to speed up processing time rather than look the information up over the network.

Contingency and Dependency.

If the system 'goes down' and the checkouts go 'OFFLINE', then the store has to be closed !

The remaining customers in the store will still be served, although the checkout will only be able to recall the prices of the 3,000 best selling lines (which are stored in the local memory). The remaining lines...