It all started here, as announced in Computerworld in May 1973.
I recently found this picture of an NCR 2552 terminal online. Part of the NCR 255 Supermarket Checkout system, this newer model was introduced in 1978 and worked with the existing NCR 255 system. While the NCR 2552 had a dot matrix printer, the original NCR 255 featured an impact printer.
From the May 22, 1978 issue of Computerworld:
I don’t know if this was a design change or a difference in model, but here we see similar registers but with the LED display on the bottom of the display panel, instead of along the top edge.
You can see the registers in action here, courtesy of Vampire Robot on YouTube.
Here’s an original NCR 255. Photo from Flickr.
In addition, several department store chains used a variation of this system. Zayre went all in on the system when they modernized from mechanical cash registers in the late 1970s. When Ames purchased the Zayre chain in the late 1980s, they considered keeping the NCR systems, but ultimately decided against it because the system was aging and it didn’t quite do what they wanted it to do.
Hills Department Stores used NCR 255s and 2552s in several of their stores, as did many Walmart locations. Here’s the NCR system in a Walmart in use as late as 1992.
I found this photo of a 1987 Walmart receipt that was printed by an NCR 2552.
Kmart was all over the place with their point of sale systems in the mid 1980s, with a few locations using the NCR 255 or 2552s while others were using much older NCR 230s and Class 5 Mechanical Cash Registers.
When unable to communicate with the store controller, the NCR 255 and 2552 registers would basically go into a glorified “adding machine” mode. The registers could add, subtract, and log entered sales onto a journal tape, but that was about it. For example, tax rates needed to be computed manually in this mode. This happened once or twice when I was running an NCR 255 register while working at Hills.
Sometime in the late 1970s the software was modified and the customer receipt format was changed in the process. Prior to the switch the amounts were along the left side of the receipt; the software update moved the amounts to the right hand side of the customer receipt.
For example, the first receipt has the original software, the second receipt the modified software. The Supermarket Checkout software followed the same conventions.
I can vividly remember a local supermarket in Liverpool, New York, “Nichols IGA” running with NCR 255 registers and making this switch. Other “Hometown Markets” (as the co-op in the Syracuse, N.Y. area was called) ran a mix of NCR 255 and 2552s on the same loop well into the 1990s.
Fred Meyer was interesting in the 1980s. While food departments had scanning NCR 2552s, the non food side in newer stores would have non-scanning NCR 255s, while some older stores, such as Longview, WA, would have the scanning NCR 2552s in the food department while still running the mechanical registers in the non food side. (The mechanical registers were in use until a big remodel in 1990) I also remember Longview had dedicated apparel registers which were NCR 2152s. I do not know if these systems were tied together, but most Fred Meyer stores had different layouts, separate departments with separate checkouts, and did not adapt centralized checkouts until the early 90s as stores were updated to IBM 4683 registers and stores were remodeled to a more open layout.
I also remember several Albertsons stores around the Boise area which had scanning NCR 2552s in the main checkouts, but had NCR 255s in the pharmacy and lobby/video rental areas. (I don’t remember if these had any scanning as they were situated on countertops instead of main checkstands) These might have been tied together but I am not sure.