EPOS - acronym Also written
Epos or
epos (Business World) (Science and Technology) Short for electronic point of sale, a computerized system of stock control in shops, in which bar-codes on the goods for sale are scanned electronically
at the till, which is in turn linked to a central stock-control computer. Etymology: The initial letters of Electronic Point Of Sale; its inventors probably chose to
add E (for electronic) to the already existing POS, point of sale. History and Usage:
EPOS was introduced in the early eighties and by 1990 was widely used in the larger chains of stores. In order for
EPOS to be used, all goods must carry a bar-code and
special electronic tills must be installed, making the changeover an expensive business; one large chain even uses
EPOS as a verb meaning 'to convert (goods, a shop, etc.) to an
EPOS system'. The barcoding of books by their publishers
is crucial to the success of the WHS
epos system. Bookseller 1 Mar. 1986, p.
819
All of the supermarkets (except Waitrose) now have some branches
with the
EPOS [Electronic Point of Sale] system . Which? Feb. 1990, p.
69 I
Eposed Oxford--that's
where the
grey hairs came from. Bookseller 26 Apr. 1991, p.
1232 See also EFTPOS
