The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed.  At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice for the customer (which may be a cash register printout), and indicates the options for the customer to make payment.  It is also the point at which a customer makes a payment to the merchant in exchange for goods or after provision of a service.  After receiving payment, the merchant may issue a receipt for the transaction, which is usually printed but can also be dispensed with or sent electronically.

To calculate the amount owed by a customer, the merchant may use various devices such as weighing scales, barcode scanners, and cash registers (or the more advanced "POS cash registers", which are sometimes also called "POS systems").  To make a payment, payment terminals, touch screens, and other hardware and software options are available.

The point of sale is often referred to as the point of service because it is not just a point of sale but also a point of return or customer order.   POS terminal software may also include features for additional functionality, such as inventory management, CRM, financials, or warehousing.

Businesses are increasingly adopting POS systems, and one of the most obvious and compelling reasons is that a POS system eliminates the need for price tags.  Selling prices are linked to the product code of an item when adding stock, so the cashier merely scans this code to process a sale.  If there is a price change, this can also be easily done through the inventory window. Other advantages include the ability to implement various types of discounts, a loyalty scheme for customers, and more efficient stock control. These features are typical of almost all modern ePOS systems.

Terminology

Retailers and marketers will often refer to the area around the checkout instead as the point of purchase (POP) when they are discussing it from the customer's perspective. This is particularly the case when planning and designing the area as well as when considering a marketing strategy and offers.

Some point of sale vendors refer to their POS system as "retail management system" which is a more appropriate term, since this software is not just for processing sales but comes with many other capabilities, such as inventory management, membership systems, supplier records, bookkeeping, issuing of purchase orders, quotations and stock transfers, hide barcode label creation, sale reporting and in some cases remote outlet networking or linkage, to name some major ones.

Nevertheless, it is the term POS system rather than retail management system that is in vogue among both end-users and vendors.

The basic, fundamental definition of a POS System, is a system which allows the processing and recording of transactions between a company and its consumers, at the time in which goods and/or services are purchased.

History

Software before the 1990s

Early electronic cash registers (ECR) were controlled with proprietary software and were limited in function and communication capability. In August 1973, IBM released the IBM 3650 and 3660 store systems that were, in essence, a mainframe computer used as a store controller that could control up to 128 IBM 3653/3663 point of sale registers. This system was the first commercial use of client-server technology, peer-to-peer communications, local area network (LAN) simultaneous backup, and remote initialization. By mid-1974, it was installed in Pathmark stores in New Jersey and Dillard's department stores.

One of the first microprocessor-controlled cash register systems was built by William Brobeck and Associates in 1974, for McDonald's Restaurants. It used the Intel 8008, an early microprocessor (forerunner to the Intel 8088 processor used in the original IBM Personal Computer). Each station in the restaurant had its own device which displayed the entire order for a customer — for example, [2] Vanilla Shake, [1] Large Fries, [3] BigMac — using numeric keys and a button for every menu item. By pressing the [Grill] button, a second or third order could be worked on while the first transaction was in progress. When the customer was ready to pay, the [Total] button would calculate the bill, including sales tax for almost any jurisdiction in the United States. This made it accurate for McDonald's and very convenient for the servers and provided the restaurant owner with a check on the amount that should be in the cash drawers. Up to eight devices were connected to one of two interconnected computers so that printed reports, prices, and taxes could be handled from any desired device by putting it into Manager Mode. In addition to the error-correcting memory, accuracy was enhanced by having three copies of all important data with many numbers stored only as multiples of 3. Should one computer fail, the other could handle the entire store.

In 1986, Gene Mosher introduced the first graphical point of sale software featuring a touchscreen interface under the ViewTouch trademark on the 16-bit Atari 520ST color computer. It featured a color touchscreen widget-driven interface that allowed configuration of widgets representing menu items without low level programming. The ViewTouch point of sale software was first demonstrated in public at Fall Comdex, 1986, in Las Vegas Nevada to large crowds visiting the Atari Computer booth. This was the first commercially available POS system with a widget-driven color graphic touch screen interface and was installed in several restaurants in the US and Canada.

In 1986, IBM introduced its 468x series of POS equipment based on Digital Research's Concurrent DOS 286 and FlexOS 1.xx, a modular real-time multi-tasking multi-user operating system.

Modern software (post-1990s)
A wide range of POS applications have been developed on platforms such as Windows and Unix. The availability of local processing power, local data storage, networking, and graphical user interface made it possible to develop flexible and highly functional POS systems. Cost of such systems has also declined, as all the components can now be purchased off-the-shelf.

In 1993, IBM adopted FlexOS 2.32 as the basis of their IBM 4690 OS in their 469x series of POS terminals. This was developed up to 2014 when it was sold to Toshiba, who continued to support it up to at least 2017.

With increased options for commodity hardware and a more competitive market, the 1990s saw increased attention paid to the user interaction between store employees and POS systems.  Touchscreens and larger displays became widely available in the 1990s, offering an alternative to limited displays like two-line VFDs used in the IBM 4683.  The performance of the employees using the POS devices, a controllable cost for the business, depends upon the ease of learning, ease of use, and level of employee experience with it.  Although experienced employees work more quickly with mechanically keyed entry, some systems favoured adopting GUI technology for ease of learning or for ergonomic factors.

The key requirements that must be met by modern POS systems include high and consistent operating speed, reliability, ease of use, remote supportability, low cost, and rich functionality. Retailers can reasonably expect to acquire such systems (including hardware) for about $4000 US (as of 2009) per checkout lane.

Reliability depends not wholly on the developer but at times on the compatibility between a database and an OS version.  For example, the widely used Microsoft Access database system had a compatibility issue when Windows XP machines were updated to a newer version of Windows. Microsoft offered no immediate solution. Some businesses were severely disrupted in the process, and many downgraded back to Windows XP for a quick resolution. Other companies utilized community support, for a registry tweak solution has been found for this.

POS systems are one of the most complex software systems available because of the features that are required by different end users. Many POS systems are software suites that include sale, inventory, stock counting, vendor ordering, customer loyalty and reporting modules.  Sometimes purchase ordering, stock transferring, quotation issuing, barcode creating, bookkeeping or even accounting capabilities are included. Each of these modules is interlinked if they are to serve their practical purpose and maximize their usability.

For instance, the sale window is immediately updated on a new member entry through the membership window because of this interlinking.  Similarly, when a sale transaction is made, any purchase by a member is on record for the membership window to report providing information like payment type, goods purchased, date of purchase and points accumulated. Comprehensive analysis performed by a POS machine may need to process several qualities about a single product, like selling price, balance, average cost, quantity sold, description and department.  Highly complex programming is involved (and possibly considerable computer resources) to generate such extensive analyses.

POS systems are designed not only to serve the retail, wholesale and hospitality industries as historically is the case. Currently POS systems are also used in goods and property leasing businesses, equipment repair shops, healthcare management, ticketing offices such as cinemas and sports facilities and many other operations where capabilities such as the following are required: processing monetary transactions, allocation and scheduling of facilities, keeping record and scheduling services rendered to customers, tracking of goods and processes (repair or manufacture), invoicing and tracking of debts and outstanding payments.

Different customers have different expectations within each trade. The reporting functionality alone is subject to so many demands, especially from those in the retail/wholesale industry.  To cite special requirements, some business's goods may include perishables and hence the inventory system must be capable of prompting the admin and cashier on expiring or expired products.  Some retail businesses require the system to store credit for their customers, credit which can be used subsequently to pay for goods. A few companies expect the POS system to behave like a full-fledged inventory management system, including the ability to provide FIFO (First In First Out) and LIFO (Last In First Out), reports of their goods for accounting and tax purposes.

In the hospitality industry, POS system capabilities can also diverge significantly.  For instance, a restaurant is typically concerned about how the sale window functions: whether it has functionality such as creating item buttons, various discounts, adding a service charge, holding of receipts, queuing, table service as well as takeaways, merging and splitting of a receipt. These capabilities may be insufficient for a spa or slimming center which would require, in addition, a scheduling window with historical records of customers' attendance and their special requirements.

A POS system can be made to serve different purposes to different end users depending on their business processes. Often an off-the-shelf POS system is inadequate for customers. Some customization is required, and this is why a POS system can become very complex. The complexity of a mature POS system extends to remote networking or interlinking between remote outlets and the HQ such that updating both ways is possible. Some POS systems offer the linking of web-based orders to their sale window.  Even when local networking is only required (as in the case of a high-traffic supermarket), there is the ever-present challenge for the developer to keep most if not all of their POS stations running. This puts high demand not just on software coding but also designing the whole system covering how individual stations and the network work together, and special consideration for the performance capability and usage of databases. Due to such complexity, bugs and errors encountered in POS systems are frequent.

With regards to databases, POS systems are very demanding on their performance because of numerous submissions and retrievals of data - required for correct sequencing the receipt number, checking various discounts, membership, calculating subtotal, so forth - just to process a single sale transaction. The immediacy required of the system on the sale window such as may be observed at a checkout counter in a supermarket cannot be compromised. This places much stress on individual enterprise databases if there are just several tens of thousands of sale records in the database. Enterprise database Microsoft SQL Server, for example, has been known to freeze up (including the OS) entirely for many minutes under such conditions showing a "Timeout Expired" error message.   Even a lighter database like Microsoft Access will slow to a crawl over time if the problem of database bloating is not foreseen and managed by the system automatically. Therefore, the need to do extensive testing, debugging and improvisation of solutions to preempt failure of a database before commercial implementation complicates the development.

POS system accuracy is demanding, given that monetary transactions are involved continuously not only via the sale window but also at the back end through the receiving and inputting of goods into the inventory. Calculations required are not always straightforward.  There may be many discounts and deals that are unique to specific products, and the POS machine must quickly process the differences and the effect on pricing. There is much complexity in the programming of such operations, especially when no error in calculation can be allowed.

Other requirements include that the system must have functionality for membership discount and points accumulation/usage, quantity and promotional discounts, mix and match offers, cash rounding up, invoice/delivery-order issuance with outstanding amount.  It should enable a user to adjust the inventory of each product based on physical count, track expiry of perishable goods, change pricing, provide audit trail when modification of inventory records is performed, be capable of multiple outlet functionality, control of stocks from HQ, doubling as an invoicing system, just to name some.

It is clear that POS system is a term that implies a wide range of capabilities depending on the end-user requirements. POS system review websites cannot be expected to cover most let alone all the features. Unless one is a developer, it is unrealistic to expect the reviewer to know all the aspects of a POS system.  For instance, a POS system might work smoothly on a test database during the review but not when the database grows significantly in size over months of usage. And this is only one among many hidden critical functionality issues of a POS system.

Hardware interface standardization (post-1980s)
Vendors and retailers are working to standardize development of computerized POS systems and simplify interconnecting POS devices. Two such initiatives were OPOS and JavaPOS, both of which conform to the UnifiedPOS standard led by The National Retail Foundation.

OPOS (OLE for POS) was the first commonly adopted standard and was created by Microsoft, NCR Corporation, Epson and Fujitsu-ICL. OPOS is a COM-based interface compatible with all COM-enabled programming languages for Microsoft Windows. OPOS was first released in 1996. JavaPOS was developed by Sun Microsystems, IBM, and NCR Corporation in 1997 and first released in 1999. JavaPOS is for Java what OPOS is for Windows, and thus largely platform independent.

There are several communication ways POS systems use to control peripherals such as:
 Logic Controls \ BemaTech
 Epson Esc/POS
 UTC Standard
 UTC Enhanced
 AEDEX
 ICD 2002
 Ultimate
 CD 5220
 DSP-800
 ADM 787/788
 HP

There are also nearly as many proprietary protocols as there are companies making POS peripherals. Most POS peripherals, such as displays and printers, support several of these command protocols to work with many different brands of POS terminals and computers.

User interface design
The design of the sale window is the most important one for the user. This user interface is highly critical when compared to those in other software packages such as word editors or spreadsheet programs where the speed of navigation is not so crucial for business performance.

For businesses at prime locations where real estate is at a premium, it can be common to see a queue of customers. The faster a sale is completed the shorter the queue time which improves customer satisfaction, the less space it takes, which benefits shoppers and staff.  High-traffic operations such as grocery outlets and cafes need to process sales quickly at the sales counter so the UI flow is often designed with as few popups or other interruptions to ensure the operator isn't distracted and the transaction can be processed as quickly as possible.

Although improving the ergonomics is possible, a clean, fast-paced look may come at the expense of sacrificing functions that are often wanted by end-users such as discounts, access to commission earned screens, membership and loyalty schemes can involve looking at a different function of the POS to ensure the point of sale screen contains only what a cashier needs at their disposal to serve customers.

Cloud-based (post-2000s)
The advent of cloud computing has given birth to the possibility of electronic point of sale (EPOS) systems to be deployed as software as a service, which can be accessed directly from the Internet using any internet browser. Using the previous advances in the communication protocols for POS's control of hardware, cloud-based POS systems are independent from platform and operating system limitations. EPOS systems based in the cloud (most small-business POS today) are generally subscription-based, which includes ongoing customer support.

Compared to regular cash registers (which tend to be significantly cheaper but only process sales and prints receipts), POS systems include automatic updating of the inventory library stock levels when selling products, real-time reports accessible from a remote computer, staff timesheets and a customer library with loyalty features.

Cloud-based POS systems are also created to be compatible with a wide range of POS hardware and sometimes tablets such as Apple's iPad. Thus cloud-based POS also helped expand POS systems to mobile devices, such as tablet computers or smartphones.

These devices can also act as barcode readers using a built-in camera and as payment terminals using built-in NFC technology or an external payment card reader. A number of POS companies built their software specifically to be cloud-based. Other businesses who launched pre-2000s have since adapted their software to evolving technology.

Cloud-based POS systems are different from traditional POS largely because user data, including sales and inventory, are not stored locally, but in a remote server. The POS system is also not run locally, so there is no installation required.

Depending on the POS vendor and the terms of contract, compared to traditional on-premises POS installation, the software is more likely to be continually updated by the developer with more useful features and better performance in terms of computer resources at the remote server and in terms of fewer bugs and errors.

Other advantages of a cloud-based POS are instant centralization of data (important especially to chain stores), ability to access data from anywhere there is internet connection, and lower start-up costs.

Cloud based POS requires an internet connection. For this reason it important to use a device with 3G connectivity in case the device's primary internet goes down. In addition to being significantly less expensive than traditional legacy point of sale systems, a notable strength of cloud-based point of sale systems is the ability to switch to a different product, by a different developer, without having to purchase new hardware. The many developers creating new software applications help to ensure that the system is supported for longer than a typical legacy POS system.

A number of noted emerging cloud-based POS systems came on the scene less than a decade or even half a decade back. These systems are usually designed for restaurants, small and medium-sized retail operations with fairly simple sale processes as can be culled from POS system review sites.  It appears from such software reviews that enterprise-level cloud-based POS systems are currently lacking in the market. "Enterprise-level" here means that the inventory should be capable of handling a large number of records, such as required by grocery stores and supermarkets. It can also mean that the system software and cloud server must be capable of generating reports such as analytics of sale against inventory for both a single and multiple outlets that are interlinked for administration by the headquarters of the business operation.

POS vendors of such cloud based systems should also have a strong contingency plan for the breakdown of their remote server such as represented by fail-over server support. Sometimes a major data center can fail completely, such as in a fire. On-premises installations are therefore sometimes seen alongside cloud-based implementation to preempt such incidents, especially for businesses with high traffic. The on-premises installations may not have the most up-to-date inventory and membership information.

For such contingency, a more innovative though highly complex approach for the developer is to have a trimmed down version of the POS system installed on the cashier computer at the outlet.  On a daily basis the latest inventory and membership information from the remote server is automatically updated into the local database.  Thus should the remote server fail, the cashier can switch over to the local sale window without disrupting sales.  When the remote server is restored and the cashier switches over to the cloud system, the locally processed sale records are then automatically submitted to the remote system, thus maintaining the integrity of the remote database.

Although cloud-based POS systems save the end-user startup cost and technical challenges in maintaining an otherwise on-premises installation, there is a risk that if the cloud-based vendor closes down it may result in more immediate termination of services for the end-user compared to the case of a traditional full on-premises POS system where it can still run without the vendor.

Another consideration is that a cloud-based POS system actually exposes business data to service providers - the hosting service company and the POS vendor which have access to both the application and database.  The importance of securing critical business information such as supplier names, top selling items, customer relationship processes cannot be underestimated given that sometimes the few key success factors or trade secrets of a business are actually accessible through the POS system. This security and privacy concern is an ongoing issue in cloud computing.

Retail industry

The retail industry is one of the predominant users of POS terminals. The POS interface at a retail establishment varies greatly depending on the industry and owner of the retailer, but usually includes a cash register (typically a specialized x86-based computer running Windows Embedded or Linux), a method for employee input, cash drawer, receipt printer, barcode scanners (which may incorporate a scale), and an interface for processing Card payments and Processing Customer Information (a Payment Terminal). It can also include a conveyor belt, checkout divider, wireless handheld scanners, integrated card processing systems, and customer-facing displays to display totals and show advertisements. While some systems use typical PC interfaces (such as a keyboard & mouse), it is far more common to utilize touchscreens as they allow for faster response and better customization for the retailer. In the past, most IBM systems used a primarily keyboard-based interface, and NCR previously used side-keys on their displays before touchscreens were widely available, similar to their ATM products.

The POS system software can typically handle a myriad of customer based functions such as sales, returns, exchanges, layaways, gift cards, gift registries, customer loyalty programs, promotions, discounts and much more. POS software can also allow for functions such as pre-planned promotional sales, manufacturer coupon validation, foreign currency handling and multiple payment types.

The POS unit handles the sales to the consumer, but it is only one part of the entire POS system used in a retail business. The controlling servers, or "Back-office" computers, typically handle other functions of the POS system such as inventory control, pricing, purchasing, receiving and transferring of products to and from other locations. Other typical functions of a POS system are: store sales information for enabling customer returns, reporting purposes, sales trends and cost/price/profit analysis. Customer information may be stored for receivables management, marketing purposes and specific buying analysis. Many retail POS systems include an accounting interface that "feeds" sales and product losses, cash drawer expected totals, and cashier productivity information to independent accounting applications.

A multi-terminal POS system used by big retailers like supermarkets and department stores has a far more demanding database and software architecture than that of a single station seen in small retail outlets. A supermarket with high traffic cannot afford a systemic failure, hence each point of sale station is designed to be robust in its operation. Most proprietary POS systems designed for large retailers use 2 servers, with one acting as a backup in case of failure. In the event that both servers fail, the individual POS systems will enter a failsafe mode, where sales data is stored locally and exported back to the servers upon a return of the connection. This may prove challenging to implement in some instances however, as many commercial POS systems do not have any hard disks for security purposes, and often have limited amounts of RAM.

Performing updates between multiple stations and the back end administrative computer should be redundant, so that updates to inventory and promotions will be accurately reflected at checkout without having to restart the computer, and reflecting accurate sales records to the back-end computer at the end of the business day.

This gets even more complicated when there is a membership system requiring real-time two-way updating of membership points between sale stations and the back end administrative computer.

Retail operations such as hardware stores, lumber yards, electronics stores and so-called multifaceted superstores need specialized additional features compared to other stores. POS software in these cases handles special orders, purchase orders, repair orders, service and rental programs as well as typical point of sale functions. Rugged hardware is required for point of sale systems used in outdoor environments. Wireless devices, battery powered devices, all-in-one units, and Internet-ready machines are typical in this industry.

Recently new applications have been introduced, enabling POS transactions to be conducted using mobile phones and tablets. According to a recent study, mobile POS (mPOS) terminals are expected to replace the contemporary payment techniques because of various features including mobility, upfront low cost investment and better user experience.

In the mid-2000s, the blind community in the United States engaged in structured negotiations to ensure that retail point of sale devices had tactile keypads.  Without keys that can be felt, a blind person cannot independently enter her or his PIN. In the mid-2000s retailers began using "flat screen" or "signature capture" devices that eliminated tactile keypads. Blind people were forced to share their confidential PIN with store clerks to use their debit and other PIN-based cards. The blind community reached agreement with Walmart, Target, CVS and eight other retailers that required real physical keys so blind people could use the devices.

Checkout configuration
Early stores typically kept merchandise behind a counter. Staff would fetch items for customers to prevent the opportunity for theft and sales would be made at the same counter. Self-service grocery stores such as Piggly Wiggly, beginning in 1916, allowed customers to fetch their own items and pass the point of sale enroute to the exit.

Modern stores have a variety of checkout configurations, but almost all stores will have their main checkout area situated close to the entrance/exits. Smaller stores may utilize simple counters, while big-box stores will typically use a conveyor belt system spaced out in separate "lanes" to process orders. Express lanes might limit the type of payment, or number or type of goods, to expedite service. Some department stores may also have checkouts inside of the departments to allow shoppers of that section to pay without going through the main lines. If each checkout station has a separate queue, customers have to guess which line will move the fastest, to minimize their wait times. They are often frustrated to be wrong or be stuck behind another customer who encounters a problem or who takes excessive time to check out. Some stores use a single, much longer but faster-moving line, that is served by multiple registers, which produces the same average wait time, but reduces the frustration and variance in wait time from person to person.  Regardless of the configuration, checkout lines usually pass by impulse buy items to grab the attention of otherwise idle customers.

As self-checkout technology has progressed, more retailers of all types have included self-checkout as an option, and in some cases, completely replace traditional cashier-operated checkout lines. Self checkout kiosks are typically kept together in a 'corral' area adjacent to the regular registers so that shop employees can more easily monitor transactions, though they are also occasionally set up in a more typical "lane" fashion with conveyor belts for loading groceries. More modern implementations of self checkout include scanning items and paying within a retailer's mobile app, or using RF technology and cameras to detect items at the door and charge the customer's account automatically.

Hospitality industry

Hospitality point of sale systems are computerized systems incorporating registers, computers and peripheral equipment, usually on a computer network to be used in restaurants, hair salons or hotels. Like other point of sale systems, these systems track sales, labor, payroll and can generate records used in accounting and bookkeeping. They may be accessed remotely by restaurant corporate offices, troubleshooters and other authorized parties.

Point of sale systems have revolutionized the restaurant industry, particularly in the fast food sector. In the most recent technologies, registers are computers, sometimes with touch screens. The registers connect to a server, often referred to as a "store controller" or a "central control unit". Printers and monitors are also found on the network. Additionally, remote servers can connect to store networks and monitor sales and other store data.

Typical restaurant POS software is able to create and print guest checks, print orders to kitchens and bars for preparation, process credit cards and other payment cards, and run reports. In addition, some systems implement wireless pagers and electronic signature-capture devices.

In the fast food industry, displays may be at the front counter, or configured for drive-through or walk-through cashiering and order taking. Front counter registers allow taking and serving orders at the same terminal, while drive-through registers allow orders to be taken at one or more drive-through windows, to be cashiered and served at another. In addition to registers, drive-through and kitchen displays are used to view orders. Once orders appear they may be deleted or recalled by the touch interface or by bump bars. Drive-through systems are often enhanced by the use of drive-through wireless (or headset) intercoms. The efficiency of such systems allows decreased service times and increased efficiency of orders.

Another innovation in technology for the restaurant industry is wireless POS. Many restaurants with high volume use wireless handheld POS to collect orders which are sent to a server. The server sends required information to the kitchen in real time. Wireless systems consist of drive-through microphones and speakers (often one speaker will serve both purposes), which are wired to a "base station" or "center module." This, in turn, will broadcast to headsets. Headsets may be an all-in-one headset, or one connected to a belt pack.

With the development of the mobile technology, Cloud-based POS system are also put forward to increase the efficiency of some restaurants, integrated with some latest software services such as scan QR code to order by customers themselves. It leads to a new style of offline restaurants dine-in.

In hotels, POS software allows for transfer of meal charges from dining room to guest room with a button or two. It may also need to be integrated with property management software.

Newer, more sophisticated systems are departing from the central database "file server" type system and going to what is called a "cluster database". This eliminates any crashing or system downtime that can be associated with the back office file server. This technology allows 100% of the information to not only be stored, but also pulled from the local terminal, thus eliminating the need to rely on a separate server for the system to operate.

Tablet POS systems popular for retail solutions are now available for the restaurant industry.  Initially these systems were not sophisticated and many of the early systems did not support a remote printer in the kitchen.  Tablet systems today are being used in all types of restaurants including table service operations.  Most tablet systems upload all information to the Internet so managers and owners can view reports from anywhere with a password and Internet connection.  Smartphone Internet access has made alerts and reports from the POS very accessible.  Tablets have helped create the Mobile POS system, and Mobile POS applications also include payments, loyalty, online ordering, table side ordering by staff and table top ordering by customers. Regarding the payments, mobile POS can accept all kinds of payment methods from contactless cards, EMV chip-enabled cards, and mobile NFC enabled cards. Mobile POS (AKA mPOS) is growing quickly with new developers entering the market almost on a daily basis.

With the proliferation of low-priced touchscreen tablet computers, more restaurants have implemented self-ordering through a tablet POS placed permanently on every table.  Customers can browse through the menu on the tablet and place their orders which are then sent to the kitchen. Most restaurants that have iPad self-order menus include photos of the dishes so guests can easily choose what they want to order. This apparently improves service and saves manpower on the part of the restaurant.  However this depends on how intelligently the system has been programmed to be.

As a case in point, some self-ordering systems not requiring staff assistance may not properly recognize a subsequent order from the same customer at a table.  As a result, the customer is left waiting and wondering why his second order of food and drink is not being served.

Another example of how intelligent the system can be, is whether an order that has been placed but not yet been processed by the kitchen can be modified by the customer through the tablet POS. For such an unprocessed order the customer should be given the option to easily retrieve the order and modify it on the tablet POS. When the order is being processed this function should be automatically disabled.

Self-ordering systems are not always free completely from intervention by the staff and for some good reasons.  For example, some restaurants require that items selected by the customers be attended to and can only be placed by the waiter who has the password required to do so.  This prevents fake orders - such as may be entered by playful kids - and subsequent dispute on the items ordered.  If alcoholic beverages are ordered, it is necessary for the waiter to verify the customer's age before sending the order.

The technical specifications for implementing such self-ordering system are more demanding than a single cashier-controlled POS station.  On the software and hardware side each tablet on a customer table has to be networked to the cashier POS station and the kitchen computer so that both are continually updated on orders placed.  The common database that serves this network must also be capable of serving many concurrent users - cashier, customers, kitchen and perhaps a drink bar.

It is to be noted by developers that some databases such as popularly-used Microsoft Access may have the specifications that it is capable of usage by multiple concurrent users.  However, under the stress of a POS system, they can fail miserably resulting in constant errors and corruption of data.

POS systems are often designed for a variety of clients, and can be programmed by the end users to suit their needs. Some large clients write their own specifications for vendors to implement. In some cases, POS systems are sold and supported by third-party distributors, while in other cases they are sold and supported directly by the vendor.

The selection of a restaurant POS system is critical to the restaurant's daily operation and is a major investment that the restaurant's management and staff must endure for many years. The restaurant POS system interfaces with all phases of the restaurant operation, and with everyone that is involved with the restaurant including guests, suppliers, employees, managers and owners. The selection of a restaurant POS system is a complex process that should be undertaken by the restaurant owner and not delegated to an employee. The purchase process can be summarized in three steps: Design, Compare and Negotiate. The Design step requires research to determine which restaurant POS features are needed for the restaurant operation. With this information the restaurant owner or manager can Compare various restaurant POS solutions to determine which POS systems meet their requirements. The final step is to Negotiate the price, payment terms, included training, initial warranty and ongoing support costs.

Accounting forensics

POS systems record sales for business and tax purposes. Illegal software dubbed "zappers" can be used on POS devices to falsify these records with a view to evading the payment of taxes.

In some countries, legislation is being introduced to make cash register systems more secure. For example, the French treasury is estimated to be failing to collect approximately €14 billion of VAT revenue each year. The Finance Bill of 2016 was intended to address some of this loss by making it compulsory for taxpayers to operate on "secure systems". Therefore, from 1 January 2018, all retail businesses in France are required to record customer payments using certified secure accounting software or cash register systems.

A certified cash register system must provide for the (i) incommutable, (ii) security and (iii) storage and archiving of data. All businesses required to comply must obtain a certificate from the cash register system provider which certifies that the system meets these requirements. This is because VAT taxpayers may need to provide a certificate to the tax authorities showing that their cash management system fulfills the new requirements.

If the business cannot provide this certificate to the tax authorities, they may be fined. And, if the tax authorities can demonstrate fraudulent use of the system, both the business and the software provider can face tax penalties, fines, and criminal sanctions. Certification can be obtained either from: a body accredited by the French Accreditation Committee (Comité français d'accréditation or COFRAC) or the software provider of the cash register system.

Security
Despite the more advanced technology of a POS system as compared to a simple cash register, the POS system is still vulnerable to employee theft through the sales window. A dishonest cashier at a retail outlet can collude with a friend who pretends to be an ordinary customer. During checkout, the cashier can bypass scanning certain items or enter a lower quantity for some items thus profiting from the "free" goods.

The ability of a POS system to void a closed sale receipt for refund purpose without needing a password from an authorized superior also represents a security loophole. Even a function to issue a receipt with a negative amount which can be useful under certain circumstances, can be exploited by a cashier to easily lift money from the cash drawer.

To prevent such employee theft, it is crucial for a POS system to provide an admin window for the supervisor or administrator to generate and inspect a daily list of sale receipts, especially pertaining to the frequency of cancelled receipts before completion, refunded receipts and negative receipts. This is one effective way to alert the company to any suspicious activity - such as a high number of cancelled sales by a certain cashier - that may be occurring, and to take monitoring action.

To further deter employee theft, the sales counter should also be equipped with a closed-circuit television camera pointed at the POS system to monitor and record all activities.

At the back end, price and other changes like discounts to inventory items through the administration module should be secured with passwords provided to trusted administrators. Any changes made should also be logged and capable of being subsequently retrieved for inspection.

The sale records and inventory are important to the business because they provide useful information to the company in terms of customer preferences, customer membership particulars, what are the top selling products, who are the vendors and what margins the company is getting from them, the company monthly total revenue and cost, among others.

It is important that reports on these matters generated at the administrative back end be restricted to trusted personnel.  The database from which these reports are generated should be secured via passwords or via encryption of data stored in the database to prevent copying or tampering.

Despite all such precautions, the POS system can never be entirely watertight in security from internal misuse if a clever, dishonest employee knows how to exploit many of its otherwise useful capabilities.

News reports on POS system hacking show that hackers are more interested in stealing credit card information than anything else.  The ease and advantage offered by the ability of a POS system to integrate credit card processing thus have a downside. In 2011, hackers were able to steal credit card data from 80,000 customers because Subway's security and POS configuration standards for PCI compliance - which governs credit card and debit card payment systems security - were "directly and blatantly disregarded"  by Subway franchisees.

In June 2016, several hundred of Wendy's fast food restaurants had their POS systems hacked by illegally installed malware. The report goes on to say that "the number of franchise restaurants impacted by these cyber security attacks is now expected to be considerably higher than the 300 restaurants already implicated" and that the "hackers made hundreds of thousands of fraudulent purchases on credit and debit cards issued by various financial institutions after breaching Wendy's computer systems late last year".

These exploits by hackers could only be made possible because payment cards were processed through the POS system allowing the malware to either intercept card data during processing or steal and transmit unencrypted card data that is stored in the system database.

In April 2017, security researchers identified critical vulnerabilities in point of sale systems developed by SAP and Oracle and commented, "POS systems are plagued by vulnerabilities, and incidents occurred because their security drawbacks came under the spotlight." If successfully exploited, these vulnerabilities provide a perpetrator with access to every legitimate function of the system, such as changing prices, and remotely starting and stopping terminals. To illustrate the attack vector, the researchers used the example of hacking POS to change the price of a MacBook to $1. The security issues were reported to the vendor, and a patch was released soon after the notification. Oracle confirmed security bug affects over 300,000 Oracle POS Systems

In some countries, credit and debit cards are only processed via payment terminals.  Thus one may see quite a number of such terminals for different cards cluttering up a sale counter.  This inconvenience is offset by the fact that credit and debit card data is far less vulnerable to hackers, unlike when payment cards are processed through the POS system where security is contingent upon the actions taken by end-users and developers.

With the launch of mobile payment, particularly Android Pay and Apple Pay in 2015, it is expected that because of its greater convenience coupled with good security features, this would eventually eclipse other types of payment services including the use of payment terminals. For mobile payment to go fully mainstream, mobile devices like smartphones that are NFC-enabled must first become universal. This would be a matter of several years from the time of this writing (2017) as more and more models of new smartphones are expected to become NFC-enabled for such a purpose. For instance, iPhone 6 is fully NFC-enabled for mobile payment while iPhone 5 and older models are not. The aforesaid disastrous security risks connected with processing payment card usage through a POS system would then be greatly diminished.

See also

 EFTPOS
 ISO 8583
 JavaPOS
 Point of sale companies category
 Comparison of shopping cart software: may or may not work together with EPOS software
 Point of sale display
 Point of Sale Malware
 Payment terminal
 POSXML
 Self checkout
 Standard Interchange Language
 UnifiedPOS
 Back-office Software
 Windows Embedded Industry (formerly Windows Embedded POSReady), an operating system largely used on POS machines
 Split payment

References

External links

Retail store elements
Payment systems
Retail point of sale systems
American inventions
20th-century inventions

Point of sale


Old Black is the nickname given to Neil Young's primary electric guitar. Most of Young's electric guitar work has been recorded using this instrument. Though he has used a variety of different instruments, this Les Paul has remained ubiquitous and an obvious favorite. Young acquired Old Black in early 1968 in a trade with then Buffalo Springfield bassist, arranger and engineer Jim Messina.

Appearance and customization
Old Black is a 1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop that has been customized extensively over the years. The instrument was traded for a '58 Gretsch 6120 with Jim Messina, the acting bassist and engineer for Buffalo Springfield (and Young's first solo album in 1969). Aside from replacing the (non-standard as of 1953) stop-tailpiece with a Bigsby B-3 vibrato tailpiece, by 1969 the guitar had changed little from what Messina handed him. It was featured prominently on a host of Springfield demos and was the sole electric guitar used on Young's first solo LP. According to personal hands-on testimony, acquired during the Crazy Horse gig at the Troubadour on April 22, 1969, (w/ sit-in by Stephen Stills) the guitar sported a Rowe-De Armond M5-A bridge coil, Bigsby B-3 vibrato tailpiece, a (shaved, non-standard) ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge, chromed brass pickguard, truss rod cover plate and aluminum cover on the neck P-90 coil, Grover C-102 'Roto-matic tuners, an added 1/8" ebony headstock facia with thin crème binding, pearl inlays of the Gibson logo, the 335 'wheat-stack' and a lustrous black lacquer over-spray on the entire neck and body.

After finishing the first Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young LP, and due to constant issues with hum from the (notorious) DeArmond single coil, Neil pulled it and left it at a guitar repair shop to hopefully resolve the grounding issue while substituting a Gretsch Filter-tron for a short time. The guitar shop folded and the DeArmond disappeared with the owner. By 1972-73 he had switched to a '63 Firebird pickup, exchanged the Grover tuners for Schaller M6 tuners, the B-3 tailpiece for a B-7 and installed a mini-circuit switch to by-pass the on-board electronics. Eventually he had additional work done necessitating the addition of another aluminum back mounted cover plate and a maple inlay was added to the back of the neck running all the way to the end of the body.

Old Black is notable for its dilapidated condition, black and gold paint worn to bare wood, corroded aluminum, brass, and nickel plated hardware, caked fret board, and a microphonic Firebird coil essential to its sound.

Condition
Old Black has seen considerable wear and tear over the last 50 years in Young's possession, with most of the black and original lacquer worn from the mahogany neck and generally about 40% from the body as well. An inlaid maple stripe, extending dead center on the back from the head-stock crown to the end bout, has not passed the test of time well. An additional round aluminum access plate is present on the back underneath the bridge coil, which allows access to the associated wiring. The head-stock still has the ebony fascia and inlays are still in place though worse for wear, but the creme binding has long since fallen off. The original neck P-90 is still in place with its custom made cover that was broken on one corner in the process of attempting to fold aluminum to the proper shape.

Other modifications
Old Black has also been fitted with a range of hardware over the years including; Chromed brass truss cover, pickguard, Grover C-102 machines, Schaller M6 machines, a Bigsby B-3 and B-7, a 'shaved' Gibson ABR-1 'tune-o-matic' bridge, mini-toggle by-pass switch in the front of the guitar dead center of the original control knobs. (allowing bypass of the on-board controls, sending the signal directly into the amp.) and a non-1953 issue stop bar tailpiece that was removed with the installation of the B-3.
Additional modifications: the addition of a Firebird pickup in the bridge position replacing (in order of succession; the original factory P-90, Rowe DeArmond M5-A and Gretsch Filter-tron), a chromed brass truss rod cover, a pair of strap-lock knobs. Old Black is rarely seen without Young's famous Ace cloth guitar strap which has also seen repair, maintenance and modifications over the years.
(The "peace" guitar strap has been reissued by D'Andrea under the original Ace brand.)

Usage
Early on, Young strongly favored the Gretsch 6120, which he used in the Mynah Birds and Buffalo Springfield, though towards their end he acquired a Stereo Gretsch White Falcon and later removed the master volume, which he has sporadically used as well throughout his career. On a radio interview in 1969 he stated he owned an 11-guitar collection, but from then onward, the majority of Young's electric guitar work has been recorded using Old Black (with the exception of the so-called "Ditch Trilogy"). On stage he has toyed with Telecasters and Flying Vs and was even photographed jamming with Jimmy Page using a borrowed Rickenbacker 615, but he always comes back to the LP. Within the last two decades he has outfitted two original '53 Gold Tops identical to Old Black as "Black-ups", though the gold finish remains on both.

See also
 List of guitars

Notes

References

External links
An interview with Young's guitar tech, Larry Cragg from thrasherswheat.org
Neil Young's Sound from thrasherswheat.org, with a picture of Old Black

Electric guitars
Individual guitars
Neil Young
Instruments of musicians
Gibson Les Paul

Old Black


3M was a goal first proposed in the early 1980s by Raj Reddy and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) as a minimum specification for academic/technical workstations: at least a megabyte of memory, a megapixel display and a million instructions per second (MIPS) processing power. It was also often said that it should cost no more than a "megapenny" ().

At that time a typical desktop computer such as an early IBM Personal Computer might have 1/8 of a megabyte of memory (128K), 1/4 of a million pixels (640400 monochrome display), and run at 1/3 million instructions per second ( 8088).

The concept was inspired by the Xerox Alto which had been designed in the 1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Several Altos were donated to CMU, Stanford, and MIT in 1979.
An early 3M computer was the PERQ Workstation made by Three Rivers Computer Corporation. The PERQ had a 1 million P-codes (Pascal instructions) per second processor, 256 KB of RAM (upgradeable to 1 MB), and a 768×1024 pixel display on a  display.  While not quite a true 3M machine, it was used as the initial 3M machine for the CMU Scientific Personal Integrated Computing Environment (SPICE) workstation project.

The Stanford University Network SUN workstation, designed by Andy Bechtolsheim in 1980, is another example. It was then commercialized by Sun Microsystems in 1982. Apollo Computer (in the Route 128 region) announced the Apollo/Domain computer in 1981. By 1986, CMU stated that it expected at least two companies to introduce 3M computers by the end of the year, with academic pricing of  and retail pricing of , and Stanford University planned to deploy them in computer labs. The first "megapenny" 3M workstation was the Sun-2/50 diskless desktop workstation with a list price of  in 1986.

The original NeXT Computer was introduced in 1988 as a 3M machine by Steve Jobs, who first heard this term at Brown University. Its so-called "MegaPixel" display had just over  (with 2 bits per pixel). However, floating point performance, powered with the Motorola 68882 FPU was only about .

Modern desktop computers exceed the 3M memory and speed requirements by many thousands of times, however screen pixels are only 2 (in the case of 1080p) to 8 (in the case of 4K) times larger (but full color so each pixel uses at least 24 times as many bits).

References

History of computing hardware
Carnegie Mellon University
Computer workstations

3M computer


Stopping power is a way to measure how powerful a firearm is. Stopping power is a measure of how quickly the gun kills an animal, for instance. Many large animals are not killed after being shot with an ordinary gun and can do damage before they die. Elephant guns, which have much more stopping power, are used to kill the large animal quickly.

Firearms

Stopping power


Balyk (from Turkic balïq) is the salted and dried soft parts of fish, usually coming from large valuable species: acipenseridae (e.g., sturgeon) or salmonidae (salmon). The word means "fish" in Turkic languages (written balık in Turkish).

History
Over time, the term was applied to smoked fish of this kind, and one may see, e.g., "cold smoked hucho balyk." As a curiosity, recently a number of  cold smoked meat products branded "balyk" appeared in Russia. Traditionally, sturgeon balyk has been considered the most fine and tender one, sought and praised by gourmets. At the same time, the tender flesh of sturgeon is more susceptible to growth of Clostridium botulinum bacteria.

See also

 List of dried foods

References

Balyk

Dried fish
Soviet cuisine
Russian cuisine

Balyk


Crossroads (later known as Crossroads Motel) is  a British television soap opera. It was shown on ITV. It began in 1964 and finished in 1988. There was a revival from 2001 to 2003.

Crossroads was set in a fictional motel in the Midlands. Crossroads was later called a hotel. The show became a byword for cheap production values. Despite this, the series regularly attracted huge audiences. It had as many as 15 million viewers.

It was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling and produced by ATV. In 1981, Central Independent Television took over ATV's broadcast licence and continued the programme until it was cancelled in 1988. In 2001, the series was revived by Carlton Television. It was cancelled again in 2003.

Storylines

1964–1988
The original idea of Crossroads was based around two feuding sisters, Kitty Jarvis, played by Beryl Johnstone, and Meg Richardson, played by Noele Gordon. Meg is a wealthy woman. She had her late husband Charles' insurance money, and compensation money from the council. The compensation was for them building a motorway through her land. Meg used her money to turn her large Georgian house into a motel.

"The Crossroads Motel" was located near the fictional small village of King's Oak. This was on the edge of Birmingham. Meg had two children. A girl named Jill, played by Jane Rossington), born in 1946, and a boy Alexander, born in 1950. Alexander was called "Sandy" and played by Roger Tonge.

The other sister, Kitty, is married to the unemployed Dick played by Brian Kent. She is not wealthy. Dick and Kitty bought a newsagents and tobacconists shop in the nearby town of Heathbury a few years after the show started. Kitty and Dick had a son called Brian, played by David Fennell, born in 1945. The story idea of the sisters feuding was dropped early in the series.

Characters in the show's early years included Meg and Kitty's brother, Andy Fraser, played by Ian Patterson. In 1965, Andy marries motel secretary Ruth Bailey, played by Pamela Greenhall. Other characters in the first series include
 the hotel chef Carlos Raphael, played by Anthony Morton
 his wife Josefina, played by Gillian Betts
 waitress Marilyn Gates, played by Sue Nicholls and later played by Nadine Hanwell
 kitchen assistant Amy Turtle, played by Ann George
 postmistress Edith Tatum, played by Elisabeth Croft
 motel handyman Philip Winter, played by Malcolm Young

Amy was briefly arrested as a suspected Soviet spy.

In 1966, long running character Diane Lawton, played by Susan Hanson arrived. Other additions included
 Meg's close friend andformer actress, Tish Hope, played by Joy Andrews
 manager and later motel director, David Hunter, played by Ronald Allen
 David's first wife Rosemary, played by Janet Hargreaves
 their son Chris, played by Freddy Foote and later by Stephen Hoye
 David's second wife Barbara, played by Sue Lloyd
 chef Gerald Lovejoy, played by William Avenell
 chef Bernard Booth, played by David Lawton
 chef Shughie McFee, played by Angus Lennie
 hairdresser Vera Downend, played by Zeph Gladstone
 accountant and later motel manager Adam Chance, played by Tony Adams
 cleaner Doris Luke, played by Kathy Staff

Perhaps the most memorable character was the "village idiot" Benny Hawkins, played by Paul Henry. His trademark was a woolly hat that he wore all the time. His fans included British troops serving in the Falklands War. In 1982, they nicknamed the Falkland Islanders "Bennies" after the character. Instructed to stop using the name, the troops came up with "Stills" for locals - because they were "still Bennies".

The series had storylines which were controversial at the time. These include
 A single parent working at the motel.
 The first paraplegic regular character portrayed in British soap opera. Sandy Richardson was injured in a car accident in 1972 and needed to use a wheelchair,

The series also saw black characters appearing regularly. This followed from the 1960s BBC soap Compact. This was also created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling. Melanie Harper, played by Cleo Sylvestre, arrived at the motel in 1970 as Meg's foster daughter. Sylvestre was given the role by producer Reg Watson after press coverage of racial tensions in Birmingham.
In 1977, an interracial summer romance took place between Cockney garage mechanic Dennis Harper, played by Guy Ward, and motel receptionist Meena Chaudri, played by Karen David.
In 1978, garage mechanic Joe MacDonald, played by Carl Andrews, arrived.

In 1981, a storyline about a false accusation of rape.
In 1983, a storyline about a test tube baby born to Glenda and Kevin Banks, played by Lynette McMorrough and David Moran.
In 1983, the subject of Down syndrome was also raised when a little girl was befriended by three of the regular characters.

The character of Meg Mortimer was axed in 1981. She was thought to have died in a motel fire. Later she turned up alive aboard the QE2, about to sail to a new life overseas. Newspapers reported that two endings were planned for Meg. She would either die in the fire or disappear and turn up on the QE2. Viewers were surprised to see producers had used both. Meg returned briefly in 1983 for a reunion with Jill and Adam on their honeymoon in Venice.

In 1985, new producer Phillip Bowman was planning to bring the character of Meg Mortimer back into the show as a "permanent occasional." Plans were well advanced when Noele Gordon died in April of that year, aged 65. Edward Clayton was brought back as Jill's ex-husband Stan Harvey to read the lines originally written for Gordon.

In 1986, the new character Ray Grice played by Al Hunter Ashton was introduced as part of an attempt to create wider storylines.

2001–2003
In 2001, the show was revived. Changes were made to characters and stories. Jill Chance had married John Maddingham, played by Jeremy Nicholas. She had been widowed and was calling herself Jill Harvey again. This had been her name before her marriage to Adam Chance in 1983. References were also made to the Russell family taking over a "failing motel", despite Crossroads having become a hotel in the late 1980s. In the final episode of the original series, the name 'King's Oak Country Hotel' was seen over the entrance doors.

Lack of real links to the past, and the killing of Jill a few months into the new run, turned many fans away. Popular characters in the new Crossroads included new owner Kate Russell, played by Jane Gurnett. Receptionist Virginia Raven, played by Sherrie Hewson, and womanising deputy manager Jake Booth, played by Colin Wells. The storyline of the final episode was the revelation that the revived series and glamorous hotel had been a dream of supermarket worker and Crossroads fan Angela, with all the other characters revealed as shoppers. Angela even approaches a female customer in the supermarket and tells her she recognises her as "Tracey Booth from Crossroads". Tracey's mother-in-law, Kate, was also shown as one of Angela's colleagues in the supermarket.

Characters

Production history

Original start dates
 2 November 1964: ATV, Border Television and Ulster Television
 4 January 1965: Anglia, Associated Rediffusion, Grampian Television, TWW, Southern Television,  Westward Television and Channel Television.
 11 January 1965: Tyne Tees, but the series was dropped and then picked up again several times until January 1972.
 29 March 1965: Scottish Television.
 5 November 1968: Yorkshire Television, but also dropped the series for a short period, until January 1972.
 11 September 1972: Granada.

ATV era
Crossroads began its run on Monday 2 November 1964. It was shown five days a week. The episodes were recorded "as live", a common practice at the time, with few opportunities for retakes. Within a few months, 10 of the ITV companies had started broadcasting the series. Granada never screened it during the 1960s. The Independent Television Authority (ITA) decreed in 1967 that Crossroads should be reduced to four episodes per week to improve its quality.
The series was no longer networked and each ITV station broadcast the show on different days.

The series was widely derided by critics who criticised the wobbly sets and fluffed lines, but gained many fans. Prime Minister Harold Wilson's wife Mary complained when the newly formed Thames Television decided to stop showing it in 1968. The decision proved unpopular with viewers and was reversed six months later. As a result of the gap in transmission, viewers in the Thames region were six months behind the rest of the country for several years. In 1972, Granada became the last ITV company to show Crossroads. By the early 1970s it was second only to Coronation Street in the ratings. In the mid-1970s it beat Coronation Street gaining audiences of up to 15 million viewers.

From April 1980, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), commercial television's regulator, decided production should be reduced further to three episodes a week. The chairman of the IBA Lady Plowden described the soap opera as "distressingly popular".
ATV planned to replace the fourth episode with a spin-off series called A Family Affair but this idea was dropped. Series star Noele Gordon, who played Meg Richardson, regularly won the TV Times Most Popular Female Personality viewers award during the 1970s.

Viewers reacted negatively at the dismissal of Gordon in 1981, an action taken by head of programming Charles Denton. He became a "national hate figure".
The series producer Jack Barton agreed with Denton that Gordon's character had become too dominant.

Why Gordon was sacked remains a mystery to TV historians as she was the most popular character on the soap and no real reason was given other than that producers felt it was time for a change. The actress herself was terribly upset by the decision. She was the only cast member on a permanent contract. She had been misled that the meeting where she was dismissed was to be the annual negotiation for the next years contract. In interviews she made it clear that she did not want to go. There is debate about the reason for her dismissal. Some people have said that Gordon's attitude within the company had upset some executives and they simply wanted rid of her. Gordon was very passionate about the soap and would regularly defend it against the many critics. Others believe that ITV found Crossroads an embarrassment and wanted to find a way of decreasing the viewing figures by sacking Gordon. She was the biggest audience draw. With fewer viewers it could be justified to axe it. Whatever the reason, the series never recovered from her loss.

Central era
ATV lost its ITV franchise at the end of 1981. It was ordered by the IBA to reform into Central Independent Television. It took over the franchise on 1 January 1982. It was thought to have little enthusiasm for the programmes it inherited.
Further changes were introduced in March 1985, when new filming locations, sets and characters were introduced. Many storylines were about the new motel owner, Nicola Freeman, played by Gabrielle Drake. Long-term characters, such as David and Barbara Hunter, were axed. The theme tune was updated and the opening titles replaced with a longer version. Finally, the show was renamed Crossroads Motel with the word "Motel" added in the opening titles. The closing titles, which had scrolled in multiple 'crossroad' directions since the start, were replaced with conventional scrolling credits.

In 1986, a new producer, William Smethurst, took over the series following the sacking of his predecessor, Philip Bowman. Smethurst had been brought in by Central Television's new head of drama, Ted Childs. He ordered changes, creating a wittier serial and improving the production values of the show. Smethurst shifted the story to the nearby village of King's Oak. Yet more long-running characters, such as Diane Hunter and Benny Hawkins, were dropped. This was unpopular with viewers, who telephoned Central in protest.

Further changes included the series being renamed Crossroads Kings Oak for a time, with the intention in the future of shortening this to King's Oak. This final change was overtaken by the decision in June 1987 by Andy Allen, Central's director of programmes, to axe the series. The familiar theme tune was replaced in September 1987 by a new theme composed by Max Early and Raf Ravenscroft. New titles were introduced to accompany the new theme, which featured stills of King's Oak and the new King's Oak Country Hotel. Michele Buck guided the show through its final few months on air as series producer, with William Smethurst still on hand as executive producer.

In January 1988, the series was reduced to only two episodes a week, with Crossroads King's Oak finally coming to an end on 4 April 1988 (the Easter bank holiday). The last, extended episode saw the character of Jill (Jane Rossington) riding off with her lover, John Maddingham (Jeremy Nicholas). Asked what name she would give the hotel she would be running in her new life, the character remarked, a little sadly, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name".

Carlton era

In 1994, Carlton Television bought Central Television.
In April 2000, Carlton announced that they would be reviving Crossroads for the daytime slot on ITV. The first episode was shown on 5 March 2001. The revived series was sponsored by washing detergent Surf and was broadcast each weekday at 1.30pm and 5.05pm on ITV, with a Sunday omnibus on ITV2. The revived series was also broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ One and in New Zealand on TV One.

Four characters from the original series returned: Doris Luke (Kathy Staff), Jill Harvey (née Richardson), Jill's ex-husband Adam Chance (Tony Adams), and Jill's daughter Sarah-Jane Harvey (Joanne Farrell/Holly Newman). Initial reactions were favourable. However, changes in the story from the original puzzled fans and did not help ratings. Kathy Staff left in dismay at the amount of sex. She told ITV Teletext she felt it was no longer the family-friendly show she had originally been part of.

The story where original character Adam Chance murders ex-wife Jill Harvey three months into the new series' was unpopular with fans. Jane Rossington said she did not want to commit herself to another long run in the show, but warned Carlton it would be suicidal to kill Jill.

Episode 137 of the second revived series remains the only episode never to be shown in full on ITV. The lunchtime screening on Tuesday 11 September 2001 began at 14:10 BST. At the halfway commercial-break point however, the programme was interrupted to hand over to ITV News for then very sketchy details of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, USA. As the afternoon went on and the seriousness of the situation became clear, all ITV Network daytime programmes, starting with CITV transmissions at 15:15, were relegated to ITV2 to continue rolling news coverage. The semi-dropped episode was therefore transmitted in full on ITV2 at 17:30 BST. However, at the time, the channel was only available to a small number of viewers able to view the subscription-based ITV Digital, Telewest or NTL. As a result, the episode remains unseen by most of the programme's regular fanbase, including the entire Channel Islands who could not receive ITV Digital. A short re-cap of events in Episode 137 was screened before both the 14:10 and 17:05 showings of Episode 138 on 12 September 2001. The episode was included in the Omnibus edition that Sunday. This also only was shown on ITV2.

The series was reduced to four episodes a week from November 2001 until January 2002.

The series paused in August 2002. In January 2003, a changed series, under producer Yvon Grace, reappeared. It seemed to be a self-consciously camp parody, with Jane Asher playing a new central character - the glamorous and bitchy Angel Samson. The series also had appearances from Kate O'Mara, and people associated with light entertainment, such as Lionel Blair, Les Dennis and Tim Brooke-Taylor. The revived series also launched the careers of Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who, Law & Order: UK), Luke Roberts (Holby City and Mile High), Lucy Pargeter, Shauna Shim and Jessica Fox.

Yvon Grace admitted she was aiming the new Crossroads towards the LGBT TV audience.
Plans were in place to bring Adam Chance back on a three-month contract in a last attempt to bring in more viewers; actor Tony Adams said that a down-on-his luck Adam would have been taken under Angel's wing as her personal assistant.

With ratings continuing to decline, the revived series was axed in March 2003. The final episode was shown on Friday 30 May 2003.

The 2003 series was criticised by fans who felt the series had moved away from the 1964-88 series and the 2001-02 series, as well as being "too gay".

Theme tune
The Crossroads theme tune was composed by Tony Hatch. In 2004 Hatch said:

A selection of cues were recorded, including Meg's Theme which eventually became the standard opening theme, Kitty's Theme which was phased out as action focussed on the motel, the closing theme which combined both Meg's and Kitty's themes,  and a variety of background pieces.

A rerecording by The Tony Hatch Sound was issued as a single by Pye Records in 1965. A special arrangement of the theme by Paul McCartney and Wings, was also used from the late seventies, usually when an episode ended with a dramatic event. Central Independent Television's head of music Johnny Patrick rearranged the tune in 1985 for piano and synthesiser, upon the show's relaunch as Crossroads Motel by producer Philip Bowman. Following William Smethurst's arrival as producer in 1987, this recording was overdubbed with added synthesisers.

An entirely new theme aired in late 1987 when the series was relaunched as Crossroads, Kings Oak, composed by Johnny Patrick, with Raf Ravenscroft and Max Early, with the CBSO. This later formed the basis of the single released by actress Shona Linsdey, "Goodbye", to commemorate the end of the show in 1988.

The 2001 revival brought back the original Tony Hatch theme, this time arranged and performed by TV theme composer Tony Flynn. Another version, in 2003, was arranged by Patrick Dineen and performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic.

Locations
The fictional Crossroads Motel was in a fictional village near Birmingham called Kings Oak. There are real suburbs in south-west Birmingham called Kings Heath, Kings Norton and Selly Oak). A number of real-life hotels doubled for location filming. The 1982 Crossroads Special said that the Longshoot Motel in Nuneaton) was used in designing the motel. It is likely that some scenes were filmed there.

In 1970, the series gained an O.B unit, giving it the freedom to do location shooting. Originally, Tanworth-in-Arden was used for King's Oak. Outside scenes were only occasionally used. From 1981 more location filming was used. Some early King's Oak location material was also filmed in Wolverhampton.

The most famous location, seen in the programme during the 1960s and 1970s, was not a motel. It was the Shropshire Agricultural Institution, now called North Shropshire College. In October 2019 two of the buildings used during filming, a teaching block and Bridden accommodation block were demolished.

It has been suggested that Crossroads was filmed at a 1960s motel on Stratford Road in Alcester Warwickshire. It was called CherryTrees. The buildings were demolished in 2001. A nearby petrol station, since closed, was used in the early 1980s to film a couple of outdoor scenes of the Crossroads garage.

In 1982, the fictional motel was destroyed by fire. The revamped motel was filmed at the Golden Valley Hotel (now Jurys Inn) in Cheltenham.

From 1985 filming moved to the Penns Hall Hotel (now Ramada Jarvis Birmingham) in Sutton Coldfield. The changed appearance was explained as being due to rebuilding. New studio sets were also introduced.

Other locations included the canal (including Gas Street Basin) behind the studios in Birmingham. in the story this was the King's Oak Canal, on which Vera had a barge. The Chateau Impney Hotel, called the Droitwich Hotel in the story, was also used. In 1983, St Laurence's Church in Alvechurch was the setting for Jill and Adam Chance's wedding. Hagley Hall was used for the wedding reception. Helios Health Club in Brierley Hill was used as the location for the Motel Health Club. It was filmed on Mondays when the health club was closed.

In 1985, Crossroads gained its first set of full length opening titles, filmed around Sutton Coldfield, Tanworth-in-Arden and in Birmingham city centre.

The revived Crossroads from 2001 was still set in the West Midlands. Exterior shots were filmed at locations in and around Nottingham, such as Bingham and Redmile.

The original series was recorded at ATV's/Central's Broad Street studios in Birmingham, while the revived series was filmed at Carlton Studios in Nottingham.

Critical reception
Despite the popularity of Crossroads with the viewing public, the show was often criticised by TV reviewers and ridiculed by British comedians. Television historian Hilary Kingsley stated that Crossroads never failed "to provide its critics with ammunition. Some of the acting would have disgraced the humblest of village halls; many of the plots were so farcical they could have been written in a bad dream, and much of the dialogue was pathetic." The Guinness Book of Classic British TV noted that "Crossroads was the series that no-one seemed to love. Yet at its peak, it was watched by more viewers than any other soap except Coronation Street."

The revived series also received mixed reviews from critics.

Acorn Antiques
Spoof soap opera Acorn Antiques, created by comedian Victoria Wood as part of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, is a deliberate parody of Crossroads. The final episode of As Seen on TV in 1987 features a hoax documentary, 'The Making of Acorn Antiques', in which the actress playing Mrs Overall (Julie Walters) - a character based on Crossroads characters Amy Turtle and Mavis Hooper - is revealed as a rather grand character who considers herself a huge star. This portrayal, plus a later pretend news item in which it is revealed she has been sacked from the show, both suggest the actress character (later given the name Bo Beaumont in the musical based on the sketches) is based on Noele Gordon, with Bo making her 'goodbye' appearance to the press in headscarf and large sunglasses and making a dramatic speech, just as Gordon did.

DVD release
In 2005, Network DVD issued four volumes of the series on DVD (UK Region 2). Each volume has 12 of the original ATV episodes. The first volume includes Meg's 1975 wedding, the highest rated episode.

In February 2007, Crossroads Volume 3 was released. There are two versions of the DVD, one being a special limited edition, which contains an extra third disc - featuring recently found episodes from 1976.

In September 2007, Crossroads Volume 4 was released.

In 2008, Network DVD started to release all the surviving episodes in transmission order through its website. The first set of 16 episodes was released in January 2008 and contained some episodes not available on earlier DVD releases.
There are 1,700 episodes of Crossroads in existence; most of these are from Central Television's run of the show from 1982 to 1988.

A black and white Crossroads Archive Volume 1.1 has also been released, containing the episode from April 1965, along with 2 further episodes, numbered 1884 and 1886 from March 1973. These were both originally made in colour but now survive only as black and white telerecordings.

On 2 November 2009, to coincide with the show's 45th anniversary, Network DVD re-released 21 volumes in a 41-disc box-set. Susan Hanson, who played Diane Hunter, appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show and Loose Women on 6 and 13 November 2009 respectively, to promote the box-set.

Repeats
From 1996 until 2001, episodes of the original series were repeated on UKTV channel UK Gold.

From February to September 2015, the original series aired on Big Centre TV on Freeview channel 8 in the Midlands or available online live at 9.00pm each evening Monday to Saturday, which could also be watched free on their catchup service.

Spin-offs

Comic strip
Crossroads was adapted into a weekly comic strip in 1972 by Dutch comics artist Alfred Mazure, published in TVTimes.

References

Other websites
 Crossroads Appreciation Society Unofficial fan club's tribute website, website has been down for 6 months
 Crossroads 2001  All about the second series of ITV's hotel soap opera.
 Destination Crossroads Views and opinions on all three series of the soap.

 Planet Crossroads  fan site

  Features about Crossroads

1964 television series debuts
English-language television programs
2003 British television series endings
2003 television series endings
British soap operas
ITV television programmes

Crossroads (British TV series)