ash Bases doesn't have anything that plugs in, or has a chip embedded
in it, so if you are wondering why this company is at CeBIT with IBM,
Microsoft, Minolta, Bosch Telecom, Fujitsu, Silicon Graphics, Adobe and all of
the other leaders of the digital economy, then maybe it's time for me to
mention once more that CeBIT is an acronym for business and industrial
machinery of Central Europe. And if there is one business machine that is
going to be giving all of Central Europe fits in the year 2002, it is the cash
register.
That is the year when over a dozen European currencies of many different
sizes and shapes will be replaced by the Euro. The six months of transition,
when every establishment in Europe must take both the old and new currencies,
will be cash register hell. Where American workers "go postal" (berserk),
European workers will "go retail."
Britain is holding off committing to the change, but if and when they do 8 kinds of Euro coins and 7 kinds of Euro notes
will replace 8 kinds of Her Majesty's coins and 4 kinds of notes and get all mixed up
together in the cash drawer. And that's one of the easiest countries. In
Italy, where a sad economy has produced impressive looking paper currency for
the equivalent of a dime, as well as every other conceivable amount, the
problem will be far more complicated, and the frustrations that much keener.
Unless, of course, you have a nifty new cash register from Cash Bases,
which has an idea so simple that it is hard to believe it is the only firm in
its niche so far, but they insist that they are. The company is manufacturing
flexible liners for cash register drawers that have moveable internal
barriers, so that all different kinds of currencies can be accommodated
without getting them mixed up. One type of drawer has a double layer of bill
compartments, so that the top row flips up easily when you want to get to the
types of bills underneath. And they are removeable, so that once everyone
settles down into a single currency, you can tidy up the inside of the cash
drawer. I am sure a woman thought of this.
-- Janice Castro
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