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Post Info TOPIC: I think I know why our Uscans are always low on cash
Mr Frontenac

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I think I know why our Uscans are always low on cash
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EUID_Unknown, I think I know why our Uscans are always low on cash. I think the managers have a low limit on the amount of cash each Uscan is supposed to have.

Today, just as my shift was ending, the ACSM on duty asked me to make a list of all my Uscans that are cash disabled and why they are cash disabled, cause  he was gonna put money in them before I left. So I made the list and also decided to list the Bill totals that each Uscan (that was not cash disabled) was reporting. Two of them had a Bill total of $1074 and the other $1300. He made a comment that those two need a pickup. A pickup?! Don't they need more money? All six of them had roughly between $900 to $1500 total in bills and coins.

I mean, in my shift today, one Uscan had a status of "OK" on its Bills and Coins meaning its cash was enabled, but 3 customers had ordered $100 in cashback and it wasn't able to give it to them so it called me over and it made me print a cash voucher for the $100. I looked at its cash report and the amount of $20s it had available for dispense was about 8. $10s, about 16. $5s, about 20. And $1s about 40.

Every day, each time I look at the cash summary, the totals are always around $1500 or lower. The highest amount I think I've ever seen on one was about $4000. But that was rare. 

So, EUID_Unknown, is that normal? How much cash is one Uscan supposed to have? I suppose it's different from store to store.



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It almost definitely varies store to store, and there's at least one newer type of U-Scan that recycles its own money.

At our store, we do have limits on how much we can put into each bill denomination, it's a physical limit though as beyond that the bills just won't fit. It's $300 in ones, $1000 in fives, and $2000 in twenties if memory serves. We try to have them at least halfway full at the start of the day (so that'd be a total of $1650 at least), and to my knowledge we've never done a pickup from the bill dispenser (maybe you have the type that recycles it's own money so it's possible for them to overflow?).

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Anonymous

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Depends on the model of machine. At my store we max out and have to and thats 7800 per machine. Its three stacks each of 1s, 5s, 20s. Even with that we still end up with two or three that have cash disabled. Its a @#&%ing nightmare.



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Anonymous

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Just wait til everything goes to credit or debit. No cash. Won't happen soon, but it is coming. Mark of the Beast, baby 



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I do not know the Toshiba hardware, but I know the basics. The machine is built to auto recycle all the bills, except $50 & $100 I'm guessing. Thinking about it, the only real reason to do a pickup....$50 & $100 are accounting for the majority of the funds in the SCO. Your store most likely has an issue with the SCO's not being equality utilized, so a few SCO's get the majority of the $$ while others get minimal (which causes SCO's to not have $$). There really isn't a good solution for units being "Cash Unavailable", except filling the units with funds. Most likely since the SCO's are auto recycling, the Accounting person in the morning isn't really worrying about them. Also, if the SCO's act like the older units, the office associate should be able to see whats available in the $1, 5, 20 cassettes. The funny thing about all of this, since they Auto Recycle filling them with a little money might end the issue for days/weeks. If the units are not taking cash, there isn't any funds to provide change with.....its a catch 22.....



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Mr Frontenac

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I just don't understand why the managers don't want to put cash in them.

90% of the reasons for having to disable cash is it being out of cash. the other 10% is mechanical stuff like "loader cassette jam," "coin hopper 6 exit jam," or "recognition sensor jam" and stuff like that.

Another reason is maybe it takes too long. One of my favorite ACSMs told me it took him all morning to fill up the two Uscan clusters with money. When I came in in the afternoon to start my shift, he was just about finishing up.



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Well depending on how they are doing it, it might take that long....but then they are waiting until they are all out of money.  But this is what you kinda need to tell them, ALL the store have the same issue....loading money!!  But think, now they might not have to worry about them for days....weeks....

Store with old units have to....

Empty Bill Acceptors daily..

Full Balance 1-2 robots daily....

Fill 1-2 Changers daily....

Load $$ in 1-2 Bill Dispensers daily.....

 



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Mr Frontenac

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Now? Oh, this wasn't today. This was weeks ago when he did that. Like around Christmas/New Year time. And I remember those particular Uscans starting to run out of cash a couple days later.

I think another problem, he told me, is the robot would report a certain amount in its local software. But the computer in the office would show it has a different amount, a much larger amount. The ACSM and CSM would tell me, "well, I dunno what to tell ya, I filled them up with cash, dunno why it's not showing up." 

Crazy stuff.



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In the past VB (the office computer) would not be communicating with the SCO's. The only way of knowing is an X in the VB computer next to that lane its not recording the funds in or out. The only way to reset the figures is to full balance the lanes, which isn't done as often with the Toshiba lanes. The amount of cash voucher that are printed at your store is kinda outrageous.....even if they need to check each machine.....they need to do that. I'm sure they would go nuts if there were running the SCO all day...

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Mr Frontenac

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EUID_Unknown wrote:

The amount of cash voucher that are printed at your store is kinda outrageous.....


 You can see that? Is there a report you just pulled up?



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Mr Frontenac wrote:

I just don't understand why the managers don't want to put cash in them.

90% of the reasons for having to disable cash is it being out of cash. the other 10% is mechanical stuff like "loader cassette jam," "coin hopper 6 exit jam," or "recognition sensor jam" and stuff like that.

Another reason is maybe it takes too long. One of my favorite ACSMs told me it took him all morning to fill up the two Uscan clusters with money. When I came in in the afternoon to start my shift, he was just about finishing up.


 On the rare occasions I've let the UScan be low on cash, it's because me or another bookkeeper messed up ordering money, and we're low on cash in the store period, so I simply couldn't afford to give any cash to UScan.



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Ask a person in the office to print the daily SCO report from the Customer Experience and Practices website.  This report shows the SCO/Checklane customer count and actionable interventions/what method your assisting customers (handheld/help at lane).  Like everything else, its a report that was used more in the past, but still exists to basically give you reporting/areas of concern.    



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Lol, Don't worry it happen to us all!  At times people think Kroger is there personal bank, we have neighboring stores and a bank in the store if we are desperate for lower demonstration currency.  I always prided myself on keeping low amounts of funds on hand and actually do no understand why this isn't more looked at.  Every store is a little different, but if I had the ability to minimize funds with the volume I'm used too....other store have no excuse. 

With Asset Protection being more involve, really surprised they haven't dug into this more.  



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