In response to rising convenience store-related crimes throughout the nation, National Retail Solutions (NRS), the operator of a leading USA point of sale (POS) network and payment processing service for independent retailers, has intensified its positioning on the need for improved worker safety and security measures.

NRS has unveiled its patented NRS POS Panic Alarm Button feature for all New York and Jersey retailers, including independent grocery, convenience stores, and bodegas, as a complementary point of sale add-on for all NRS customers, free for one full year.

This new pilot program will begin in New York and New Jersey and is scheduled to expand throughout the United States in later 2022 and 2023.

This Premium add-on theft deterrent feature alerts police for help with the touch of a silent button which is secretly, craftily located among the feature buttons on the POS merchant touch screen.

This new feature allows workers to simply hold the button for a designated number of seconds, opening the register and triggering a silent alarm that inconspicuously alerts the police and adds a much-needed level of security for cashier and front desk workers.

(See for yourself how a wave of crime is targeting corner stores and delis across the five boroughs, threatening a crucial part of New York City’s fabric. Courtesy of FOX 5 New York and YouTube. Posted on May 11, 2022.)

NRS is a leading provider of intuitive point-of-sale (POS) systems, custom-built for independent retailers across the USA, and the NRS POS network spans over 18,000 stores nationwide.

Ranked #1 POS for Small and Midsized Businesses by Information Age Magazine^[1], the NRS POS system is a powerful retail ecosystem that helps small business owners organize their stores, attract customers, and increase revenue.

The new NRS POS Panic Alarm is the latest feature in the state-of-the-art technology of the NRS Point of Sale system, which includes a variety of hardware and software features that help small business owners be more efficient, including:

• In-store items: The In-Store Items section of the POS interface gives complete control over your items for sale.

• UPC catalog: POS price book comes with thousands of UPCs from popular brands and items to help save time. Save time adding chips, drinks, and other sides already in the catalog.

• One-click items: With the One-Click Items section of POS, easily assign popular items to custom buttons. Give each menu items a button to create an order in fewer presses and scans.

• Convenient barcode scanner: Every POS bundle includes a barcode scanner to improve checkout speed. Since the NRS POS works with custom barcodes, create stickers at the touch of a button and scan them. Adding barcodes gives more options for speeding up sales.

• User-friendly touch screen: A touch screen interface makes it easy for tech users of all skill levels to use POS. The interface has large, easy-to-read buttons on a screen built for visibility and comfort. Colors can be customized for an enhanced merchant experience.

• Run your own customer-facing ads: In the online, remote-management merchant portal, you can upload your own ads to run on your customer-facing screen.

• Build and easily set up your own promotions, and manage them on your POS.

• Remote store management via merchant app + web portal. Manage your store from anywhere, and access reports, 24/7.

As bodega, convenience store, and small supermarket crimes skyrocketed throughout NYC amid the pandemic, small store owners immediately looked to panic buttons as a security solution, urging the city to pass a bill to reimburse for panic buttons^[2].

Under the bill, the City of New York would reimburse small businesses for installing panic buttons, which workers could use in emergency situations to alert law enforcement.

Named “Junior’s Law” in honor of 15-year-old “Junior” Guzman Feliz, who, in 2018, was dragged out of a bodega in the Bronx and stabbed to death, the proposed measure never passed.

Junior’s mother said a bodega panic button may have saved his life.

(Justice for Junior case: PIX11 reviewed more than a dozen surveillance videos, including a heartbreaking scene that shows the mortally wounded teen, with a lethal stab wound in his neck, walking slowly across Third Avenue at East 183rd Street toward St. Barnabas Hospital. Courtesy of PIX11 News and YouTube. Posted on Sep 20, 2018.)

Now, as violent crimes and robberies continue to plague bodegas and other small businesses, NRS hopes to offer store owners and workers the solution they deserve.

NRS understands the needs of urban-based small businesses, and their customers’ success and safety are always the number one focus.

“We strive to present the most innovative technologies to help protect the safety and well-being of our retailers, their staff, and store patrons,” explains Elie Y. Katz, founder, and CEO of National Retail Solutions (NRS).

“The uptick in crimes at bodegas in New York and New Jersey is unacceptable, and we at NRS cannot sit back while our customers are expected to put themselves in harm’s way at work without adequate safety measures.”

“We are proud to offer New York and Jersey retailers our patented NRS POS Panic Alarm for free for one year with our NRS POS system.”

“NRS hopes that small independent convenience stores and bodega owners take advantage of this free one-year trial.”

“The NRS Panic Button feature is now available in New York and New Jersey, to provide the ultimate solution for workers with the extra layer of protection they deserve. It’s our priority to become part of the solution to workers’ safety,” Katz emphasizes.

The NRS patented Panic Alarm Button is a subscription Premium Feature for the NRS POS. For details, visit nrsplus.com/panicalarm or call 833-289-2767.

Related Technologies…

Singlewire Software Returns to Compete in 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program

American Security Today’s Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program, and now in its Seventh Year, continues to recognize industry leaders of Physical and Border Security, Cybersecurity, Emergency Preparedness – Management and Response, Law Enforcement, First Responders, as well as federal, state and municipal government agencies in the acknowledgment of their outstanding efforts to Keep our Nation Secure.

Singlewire Software, a Multi-Award Winner in the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, is pleased to announce the InformaCast Mobile Panic Button is one of Three Products Nominated to compete in the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program.

The InformaCast Mobile Panic Button is the latest addition to the InformaCast Mobile app, giving organizations an easy way to provide personalized protection for all their people.

Informacast panic button alerting is perfect for classrooms, businesses, and anywhere else where a timely mass emergency notification is needed

(See how InformaCast’s mobile panic button allows users to get quick and discreet help when an emergency rises. Once a mobile panic button is pressed, it notifies the proper authorities and opens a tracking event so that the administrators can pinpoint the exact location of the emergency and get help to the user who pressed the panic button promptly. Courtesy of Singlewire Software and YouTube.)

End users that download the InformaCast app will have access to a mobile panic button they can activate if they find themselves on their own in a dangerous situation.

Once the button has been pressed, the app will provide the user with instructions on what they should do to remain safe as well as offer the ability to connect directly with the security team via a phone call to receive further assistance.

InformaCast sends a notification to the security team with information about who pressed the button and where they are located on a map. Even if the user moves, the security team will be able to track their new location.

The security team also has the ability to send follow messages or connect directly with the sender.

Knowing users’ locations during an emergency can aid in assisting them to safety.

(Mass communication is often thought of as an excellent solution for emergency notification, and it certainly is. But InformaCast Mass Communication Software offers much more value than just emergency notification. It is a communication tool that can be customized to individual user’s needs. This flexibility makes it easy for InformaCast to be utilized by people across your organization for day-to-day operations, unique communication needs and, of course, emergencies. By utilizing InformaCast as an organization-wide communication tool, you save money by consolidating tools from different departments into a single solution. It can also save you time by limiting maintenance efforts to just one solution. Courtesy of Singlewire Software and YouTube.)

First responders will know where to send assistance, how many people are involved, and what kind of situation they’re walking into. This functionality can be used on college and university campuses for students walking home alone at night, in manufacturing for lone workers, and in federal and healthcare industries that might have workers walking alone to their cars late at night.

The mobile panic button is just one of the many useful features available within the InformaCast app that makes triggering notifications and managing incidents easy no matter where a person is. It offers flexibility to not be tied to a computer desktop to send alerts and handles a situation as it unfolds.

All of an organizations messages and analytics can be accessed from the app so InformaCast users can launch notifications directly from their mobile device.

With the InformaCast Command Center feature, organizations can pre-build buttons for common emergency scenarios to quickly access notifications and provide detailed information, like the location of the incident or a description of an intruder.

Flexible message templates mean organizations can create notifications for any kind of situation they are likely to encounter, from active shooters and severe weather to network outages and medical events.

Messages can be sent in multiple formats including SMS text messages, push notifications, emails, and audio messages, and the more formats used the more likely it is that someone sees the message quickly and takes appropriate action.

Notifications can also be sent with the option for recipients to respond to the message, which gives system administrators and safety team members real-time insight into ongoing incidents.

For example, if an organization issues a lockdown notification, a follow-up message can be sent to see if people are safe or need assistance.

Responses can be viewed directly within the mobile app to see how effective the initial notification was and to determine who needs help. Dynamic replies can also be used to provide more specific instructions in follow-up messages depending on a person’s response.

Should someone reply that they are safe, they can receive a follow-up notification saying that they should remain where they are until they receive an “all clear” message.

Meanwhile, those that reply that they need assistance can receive a follow-up message letting them know help is on the way. This can all be automated and configured ahead of an incident to when a crisis occurs no time is wasted creating messages during stressful situations.

Additionally, InformaCast Mobile also offers geofencing capabilities to alert everyone within a certain area and even trigger alerts when users enter or leave a designated location.

During the September 11th attacks, leaders from a US Federal agency tried — and failed — to evacuate people from their facility.

They contacted Singlewire Software requesting a solution that would be easy to use, could manage 250 separate paging zones, and wouldn’t bring the phone system down. InformaCast was the answer.

That agency became the company’s first client and is still a client today.

Many of the same engineers who created InformaCast mass notification software still work on their development team, and over the years, they’ve evolved InformaCast into powerful solutions for emergency mass notification, bi-directional mobile alerting, situational awareness, and workplace optimization.

When you invest in InformaCast notification software solutions, you protect your most important asset — your people.

To Learn More about Singlewire Software Solutions, an industry leader in mass notification and emergency preparedness systems, recognized for Four Consecutive Years to date in the Annual ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, please visit www.singlewire.com.

• *Singlewire Software was also recognized with Multiple Awards in the 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Awards, as well as Awards in the 2019, and 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program.

The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards highlight the most cutting-edge and forward-thinking security solutions coming onto the market today, to ensure our readers have the information they need to stay ahead of the competition and keep our Nation safe – one facility, street, and city at a time.

Learn More… 

InformaCast Mobile Panic Button Nominated in 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Awards