Kent Kwik Stores Rolls Out PDI/Lottery
MIDLAND, Texas — The Kent Cos. completed the implementation of PDI/Lottery at its 39 Texas Kent Kwik convenience stores.
According to Temple, Texas-based based PDI, the retail product suite significantly reduces time needed to receive, count, audit and review scratch-off lottery ticket inventory. PDI/Lottery also is designed to enable c-store personnel to easily manage inventory in vending machines while also reconciling deliveries and activations for books loaded in the machine.
“Our old method, which required us to count using pen and paper, would take about 30 minutes,” said Ross Gentis, information technology manager for The Kent Cos. “With the Lottery software, we use the PDI handheld to scan the barcode on each ticket. The process has been reduced from 30 minutes to less than two.”
The PDI/Lottery product uses proprietary scan technology, allowing c-store operators to capture information about lottery inventory. The barcode on each lottery ticket provides necessary information to track the inventory in more detail, including game, book and ticket number. The product is also designed to reduce human error, as c-store personnel is not required to manually enter data.
“The biggest problem we had was that we were spending thousands to recoup five cents,” said Gentis. “From accounting to store-level staff, we had several people trying to track just one inventory item. Since shifting to this method, the tracking is done every shift, and we have a more accurate view of sales and losses in real time.”
PDI is “thrilled” to serve its customers with this new product, added Greg Gilkerson, president and CEO of PDI. “Scratch-off lottery tickets are a notoriously high-shrink, low-margin inventory item. Giving managers the tools to more efficiently and accurately manage that entire process — from receiving to audits — is a huge win, and we’re happy to deliver it.”
Midland-based The Kent Cos. began beta-testing PDI/Lottery earlier this year. In addition to its Kent Kwik c-stores, it also operates Avis Lube, Baskin-Robbins, Rustic Café and Huddle House locations.