Pioneer Market: An NCR Case Study

The customer

Dieter Dubberke and his family were on vacation in 1978, passing through the small town of Mariposa, California—the gateway to Yosemite National Park. It was there in Mariposa he noticed a mini-mart offered for lease. Resolved to utilize his years of experience in the retail grocery business and start out on his own, he negotiated a lease on the property and made the move to embark on a new venture.

While operating the mini-mart, Dubberke quickly realized the Mariposa community was in need of a large and efficient supermarket. So, Dubberke opened Pioneer Market in 1981 and soon expanded the store to cover 10,000 square feet.

Dubberke’s ultimate dream came to fruition in 1984 when Pioneer Market moved to its present site, Prospect Center, where it occupies 30,000 square feet and offers a full line of meats, beverages and groceries—a supermarket in every sense.

The challenge

Just as the Dubberke family name is now synonymous with Mariposa, so is the name Pioneer Market synonymous with a well-run, modern and efficient grocery operation. Pioneer Market continues to provide its customers with a personal touch while enjoying the patronage of the community it proudly serves.

A staple to the Mariposa community, Pioneer Market is a busy supermarket with a wide variety of departments. Providing this high level of service and choices to shoppers also brings challenges in optimizing staff productivity and keeping store operations as efficient as possible. The varying departments, such as customer service and meats, had non-integrated registers which caused difficulties in balancing the store and created time-consuming processes.

Ultimately, the grocer needed a comprehensive point-ofsale (POS) solution that would enable complete integration throughout store operations to improve efficiencies, boost employee productivity and improve customer satisfaction. Pioneer Market is also continuously looking for new ways to improve the customer experience and build loyalty. They wanted to explore innovative ways to improve shopper satisfaction by reducing wait times at the checkout.