Nature's Market Grows with Catapult Leading the Way

Nature's Market is an upscale natural food store, the largest in a 30-mile radius of Kent, Washington. Sally Honeysett is proprietor over a huge selection of groceries and supplements, including organic produce, wines, and cheeses. The small deli serves a good-sized lunch crowd from the community of Kent.

While she was making plans to expand her store, Sally knew to run Nature's Market at peak performance she would need the help of a Retail Automation system. “That meant I needed to keep up with the changing times and technology.” Sally first heard about Catapult at the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) trade show in Las Vegas. “I knew the system had more features than I would use right away,” she recalls. “Now (after using Catapult for eight months) I absolutely love the whole system, even though I'm nowhere near using Catapult to its full potential.”

“I went to the Catapult University training eager to learn all there was to know about the system. There was so much to learn. I decided I would focus on learning one thing at a time and once I learned one thing, I'd move on to the next. Mac Mast was an outstanding instructor. He gave me the overall picture with enough information so I could work my way through the system. I'm not a computer mastermind with a lot of time. The class kept me from being lost with the system.”

“Catapult is very user-friendly. Because I know the basics now, and the arrangement of and information of the screens are helpful, I don't normally need to go the documentation.” But when she does, Sally says the Catapult On-Line Manual is helpful as well.

Nature's Market owner
Sally Honeysett (left):
"Catapult is worth every penny."

“My younger employees, the more computer-minded, they loved Catapult right away. The older staff took a little longer to get used to it. The daily Cashier Reconciliation report helps me determine which cashiers need some help with particular procedures so I can address those needs with them.” Sally uses the hourly sales reports to decide when more or fewer employees need to be scheduled.

Building an inventory database with 25 to 30 thousand items is no easy task, but the payoff is worth it. Catapult helps Nature's Market stay compliant with government regulations. “The State of Washington is very strict about a scanned item's price at the register matching the shelf tags. Every month I put about 120 items on sale.” Before Catapult, every item in the store had to have a price tag. And putting items on sale meant additional price tags—and headaches.

“Being able to create a Promotional Price Change ahead of time is a huge plus. I've got to where I can do that so fast, it really saves time. And the LabelVision signs are nice and uniform throughout the store—not hand-drawn like they were before—and they show the customers the sale price and when the sale ends. No more sale stickers—that really cuts down on labor costs.”

Nature's Market's
new location shines.

Tracking all the inventory movement is a big benefit to Nature's Market. “I really like the report showing items with zero movement.”

When asked about how Catapult has helped with frequent tasks at Nature's Market, Sally said, “Scanning customer coupons is a breeze. And the Activity Summary reports have helped shorten processing my B&O (Business & Operations) Taxes by summarizing the nontaxable sales for me.

“I know I will eventually use more and more of the features. I'm looking forward to using the new Gift Cards feature and starting a Customer Loyalty program.

“The bottom line,” Sally concluded, “Catapult is worth every penny. I shudder to think how I'd be running this store without it.”