Natural Food Retailer Selects TCI Solutions

TUCSON, Ariz. - Natural food retailer Earth Fare Inc. has purchased RetailSuite foundation enterprise solutions from Tucson, Ariz.-based TCI Solutions Inc. The supermarket chain chose TCI's Headquarters Price Management System (HQPM2) and Store Manager (SM2) after it did a private return-on-investment study. The company spent five months evaluating TCI's software to make sure it could provide specific capabilities.

Earth Fare said it purchased TCI's Perpetual Inventory module so it could easily review inventories for the entire company or at individual stores for quicker and more accurate stock replenishment. The retailer also added FRENDS to provide automated task scheduling, file transfers, and remote job execution.

"TCI's software will give us control over each of the specific areas where we want to strengthen execution of our business processes. Plus, the flexibility of TCI's applications means we don't have to scrap or modify any of our existing systems to get this control," said Earth Fare's IT director Bonnie Cathey.

The company plans to implement the new applications by the end of the second quarter of 2003, tying them into their existing Systech POS system.

Earth Fare, established in 1975 as Dinner for the Earth, was the first natural food store in Asheville, N.C. Today it offers fresh natural and organic foods, freezer foods, health and body care and other organic and natural items. Headquartered in Asheville, Earth Fare stores are located throughout the southeast in North and South Carolina and Georgia.