The Turnip Truck, a natural grocer with a mission to bring the bounty of the farm to the city of Nashville, has streamlined and enhanced their business operations using CATAPULT® Retail POS. As the only truly unified point-of-sale platform, CATAPULT provides native modules to automate ordering and receiving, updates inventory for weighted items in real-time using AutoScale™, offers a seamless online shopping experience with CATAPULT WebCart™ and more. In this interview, learn how the seamless retail technology offered by ECRS changed the game for the Turnip Truck.
Q&A
with Adam Williams, CFO of The Turnip Truck
What would you tell another retailer who is considering CATAPULT?
I would say: Look at all the benefits. Look at all the technological differentiators within the software. The Turnip Truck originally used CATAPULT in 2010, then we switched to a different system for about a year. That’s all it took for us to desperately come running back to ECRS.
I don’t get the sense that other companies are keeping up the same way that ECRS is.
At the time, a big differentiator for us was auto-ordering. We wanted to look at ways to control our inventory and cut down on the time our staff spent taking orders. That was a big sell for us. Along the way, ECRS has been very open to customer input, and the technology continues to evolve. I don’t get the sense that other companies are keeping up the same way that ECRS is. That makes me feel very confident about our partnership going forward.
The Turnip Truck uses several CATAPULT modules. Are there any that stand out to you?
AutoScale, because it doesn’t require a ‘go-between’ software to connect with the point-of-sale system. Previously, we used a third-party scale – we still have a few deployed. There’s always something going wrong with those, always something breaking. We’d like to eventually replace all our scales with AutoScale.
Tell us about using WebCart™ – CATAPULT’s native eCommerce solution – instead of a third-party eCommerce vendor.
When we first rolled out our online shopping option during the pandemic, at first, we used a third-party vendor. We had to download our inventory file, reupload it to their site, then link all the images. Working with a third-party site required us to log in to one more platform to be able to communicate with our customers. There was a breakdown in customer service as a result.
With WebCart, now everything is unified! We only need to deal with an inventory file once, which is super convenient. I can’t even imagine going to something else. I can’t even fathom that.
What would you tell somebody if they were on the fence about going to ECRS’ user conference, Ignite?
You have to go! During the pandemic, people wanted to move everything to Zoom or Teams and host conferences virtually. But when everything is virtual, you can’t look somebody in the eye. You can’t have a drink at a restaurant afterwards and have a candid conversation and really make that connection.
At industry conferences, you’ll have the main event, you’ll go to seminars, it’ll be really good information. But where a lot of the magic happens is afterwards, when you get the chance to talk to your peers and talk to people who are running the show, outside of the actual presentation. That’s where you really learn and that’s where you’re able to adapt what you’re working on in your business to the information and systems that they’re trying to deliver to you. I don’t think there’s any substitute for in-person meetings. I’m very excited to go back to Ignite.
About The Turnip Truck
John Dyke, owner of the Turnip Truck, opened his first store in East Nashville’s 5 Points neighborhood in 2001 and has been serving Nashville ever since, opening two more stores in Tennessee since the grand opening of their first location. A champion for independent farmers, John is committed to revealing the timeless wisdom of eating “real food.” Turnip Truck is focused on buying responsibly farmed, local and sustainable produce, meat and seafood whenever possible. Their goal is, as always, to enrich their community by providing quality and responsibly sourced products.
Are you ready to join the CATAPULT Community? Contact ECRS today for more information on how to take the next steps to implement a seamless, fully integrated platform. Stop waiting, start automating, with CATAPULT Retail POS!
