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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Stewart’s Shops, a convenience store chain known for its dairy products, recently signed a multi-year agreement under which PaySpot Inc. will provide electronic prepaid products to Stewart’s through Stewart’s existing point-of-sale (POS) system. This integration is the first of its kind, as no other chain has been integrated with prepaid on The Pinnacle Corp.’s Palm POS.

PaySpot will expand Stewart’s prepaid category. Before PaySpot, the only prepaid product offered by Stewart’s was a long-distance carrier’s calling cards, the compaby said. PaySpot was able to continue to supply the national long distance (LD) provider as well as add several other specialty cards from other LD carriers. Additionally, Stewart’s accepted PaySpot’s prepaid wireless suite into its stores, which provides top-up minutes for more than 40 wireless carriers.

The rollout of prepaid wireless and LD into Stewart’s 326 retail locations is currently in process, and the addition of other prepaid products, including prepaid debit, prepaid gift, money transfer and bill payment, will be considered after the first phase of prepaid is implemented.

The second opportunity with Stewart’s was the requirement to integrate with Stewart’s existing POS system, Pinnacle’s Palm POS provided by Pinnacle, Arlington, Texas. According to PaySpot, integration enables the clerk to sell, recharge, refund and disable prepaid products directly from the POS; it eliminates the need for additional hardware, opening valuable counter space in the retail location; it reduces clerk training efforts by implementing new products on a machine by which they are already familiar, which also improves transaction time and customer experience; and it grants the store a single reconciliation point for all products sold from that location.

“PaySpot and Stewart’s were brought together by the initial work that PaySpot was doing to become integrated with Pinnacle,” said Jamison Jaworski, vice president of sales for PaySpot, Leawood, Kansas. “We could provide the needed prepaid suite of products to Stewart’s through its existing POS system.”

To help engage Stewart’s Stores in the new prepaid category, the companies are planning vendor promotions for 2008.

PaySpot, a subsidiary of Euronet Worldwide, is a major U.S. prepaid processor. It offers a variety of prepaid products, including prepaid wireless, prepaid long distance, prepaid gift cards, prepaid debit cards, bill payment, money transfer, check guarantee, merchant processing, age verification and prepaid handsets. The PaySpot system supports online electronic top-up at retail locations via a range of POS terminals or through integrated electronic cash registers for retailers with multiple locations and multiple checkout points.

Pinnacle is a leader in the automation technology industry focusing on the convenience store and petroleum industries. It delivers products that automate c-store operations and supply chain management of fuel operations. Nationwide, Pinnacle's products and services are used daily in thousands of convenience outlets to automate and improve their store operations and by fuel marketers to increase their efficiency in the management of fuel delivery.

Stewart's Shops, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is an employee and family owned business operating in Upstate New York and Vermont.

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