Located just a stone's throw away from the University of Virginia in the heart of Charlottesville, Rebecca's Natural Food is a health food haven for locals and students alike. Its proximity to Monticello and Wintergreen ski resort make it an occasional stopover for area tourists as well. Owner Norman Dill recently sent several of his top employees for three days of intensive training at the October Catapult End-User School in Boone, NC. We took this opportunity to get some feedback from Dill and his staff about Catapult.

Word Gets Around : Catapult's Reputation

According to Rebecca's accountant Fred Kinnaman, "Catapult came very highly recommended by several independent retailers who had absolutely nothing to gain if we installed Catapult in our store. That says a lot about the positive aspects of the system. Catapult is a very comprehensive solution with a range of potential we hope to make part of our standard operations."

A Shallow Learning Curve : Catapult's Intuitive Design

Rebecca's store manager KeriAn Bicknell shared an interesting anecdote. "About two months after we installed Catapult, a travelling POS consultant paid us a visit. He was doing random evaluations of POS systems for vendors he was partnered with," explains Bicknell. "He was very impressed with how well and how indepthly we were using Catapult. This was very reassuring and inspiring to hear since we didn't really have any other users to compare our progress to."

New & Improved Operations : An Owner's Perspective

"Catapult is changing the way we're doing business," says Rebecca's owner Norman Dill, "and much more significantly than we'd expected. We're finally on the right track, and look forward to the long-run results that Catapult will bring to our store operations." According to Bicknell, Rebecca's is "now doing automatic re-orders with many of our distributors, which saves quite a bit of time. Plus, Catapult's Transaction Detail and Paid In/Out reports help tremendously with balancing the registers at the end of each day."

Catapult Training School : A PhD in POS

When asked to comment on the benefits she and her coworkers received from the October Catapult Training School, Bicknell had this to say. "This recent training gave us a firm grasp of both the Receiving worksheet and the Add Item worksheet, both of which we were a little fuzzy on before the school. We're also doing a lot more with promotional sales and vendor line drives now. And the sharing of information during school, especially with other health food store employees, was very valuable."

Catapult University Registration

To register for Catapult University, download and print the Catapult University Registration Form, provide the required information, and fax it to ECRS at 800-849-8910. For more information, contact Ashlee Olson at 800-211-1172 ext 5082 or at aolson@ecrsoft.com.