Located in the Hudson River Valley by the Catskill Mountains, Woodstock, NY is a well-known arts and tourist community. According to Bob Whitcomb, owner and president of Sunflower Natural Foods of Woodstock, his town is much busier than its moderate population might suggest. Mr. Whitcomb recently talked with us about how Catapult is helping him automate his health retail operation.

ECRS : Tell us a little about the history and business philosophy of Sunflower.

Whitcomb : Sunflower is now over 25 years old. We started out in 1978 with just a small retail space and have tripled in physical size since then. We are a bountiful community marketplace where people can mingle and socialize as they shop. We provide products that nourish our customers and sustain the earth. Our produce, which accounts for about 15% of our business, is all certified organic. We carry a complete line of grocery, dairy, vitamins/supplements, body care, frozen, bulk grains, pet supplies, housewares, and household cleaning products. Our growth over the years has been very steady.

ECRS : Has Catapult helped speed up your checkout lanes for your clientele?

Whitcomb : Absolutely. Our clientele is very diverse, ranging from teenagers to the elderly, and everything in between. We also have a large contingent of female customers between the ages of 25 and 50. As with any retail operation, keeping customer throughput time to a minimum is crucial. With Catapult, our checkout times are noticeably faster and more accurate.

ECRS : How did you decide that Catapult was the right solution for your retail enterprise?

Whitcomb : I was walking around the show floor at Natural Products Expo East in the fall of 2000 when I noticed the touch screen display at the ECRS booth. I craned my neck while passing to get a better look, and eventually made a U-turn to go back and see what this solution was all about. I was very impressed with what I found that day. I talked at length with the ECRS representative about my needs as a retailer, and about how Catapult could be the tool to help me meet those needs. At the end of our conversation, we scheduled a full-blown, on-site Catapult demonstration.

For a while we had a computerized store system, but that company went out of business, so we switched back to manual cash registers for a while. It didn't take long to realize that we wouldn't be able to avoid true automation forever. We had been looking at some of Catapult's contemporaries, but those packages never impressed us with what they had to offer. After my on-site Catapult demo, I realized that this was the solution that would give us the level of control we'd been looking for. Catapult made re-entering the world of computerized automation very compelling and rewarding.

ECRS : How does Catapult's intuitive POS touch screen help with training new employees?

Whitcomb : Training employees with Catapult is so easy that we usually just do it in a live store environment. Practically all new staff members pick up the system very quickly and are up and running in no time. We've setup our entire POS side to be purely menu driven, and we continue to develop screen layouts and add new features to meet our changing needs. Catapult offers very deep flexibility in this regard.

ECRS : What Catapult reports do you rely on most?

Whitcomb : Every day we run a Cashier Activity report for each employee. I use these to reconcile the individual cash drawers. Each month we generate a Sales Activity report, which give us the "big picture" of how Sunflower is doing from month to month. We generate Sales Activity reports quarterly for filing sales taxes. We also print weekly statements to keep our employee charge accounts in order. Catapult's Recommended Order reports are very handy tools for maintaining accurate inventory replenishment. It's amazing just how much Catapult has to offer in terms of retail analysis and control.

ECRS : In what other ways does Catapult help automate your retail processes?

Whitcomb : Many of our orders are done automatically through Catapult's intuitive interface. This has also allowed us to quickly import a great number of inventory catalogs that would have taken many long hours to enter manually. The interface makes it easy to set up new items and to update prices as needed. Catapult's Inventory Maintenance worksheets have data import capabilities that add yet another dimension to this very thorough retail solution. It just gets better all the time.

ECRS : Would you recommend Catapult to other health retailers?

Whitcomb : Definitely. Looking back on Sunflower's implementation of Catapult, it was actually a very simple process. But because the system is so powerful and customizable, I highly recommend assigning one particular employee to be in charge of database management. We have a person who puts in about 15-20 hours each week managing our Catapult database, which has really paid off for Sunflower.