Supermercado Suksa is a single store grocery operator servicing largely Hispanic customers in the Pleasantville area of Houston. Mr. Danny Abrego is the owner of Supermercado Suksa, and has been in the business for 28 years. The store offers a range of financial services, including check cashing; cashing an average of $1M in checks every month.
If my Paycheck Secure system broke today; I would be on the phone with AllTrust immediately. We rely that much now on the Paycheck Secure system. It gives us confidence to cash checks. – Danny Abrego | Vice President, Supermercado Suksa
Challenge
Supermercado Suksa needed a better solution to help them combat bad check writers and improve the overall program for both their customers and staff, particularly management oversight. While they had been offering check cashing services, they were relying on individual memory and inefficient paper-based tracking. They had little control of their exposure to check fraud making them susceptible to repeat fraud.
Before installing Paycheck Secure they were taking at least one fraudulent check per month, oftentimes more and frequently for high dollar amounts. In addition they were dealing with multiple NSF checks each month. Mr. Abrego noted that they had a dedicated person to manage check recovery for fraud and NSF checks (today that person still works at Supermercado Suksa; but not doing check recovery)!
Solution
Once Paycheck Secure was installed, Mr. Abrego quickly realized how it empowered his clerks. His clerks have the information right there on the screen (picture of the customer, ID image, check cashing history) enabling them to make educated decisions on whether to cash an individual check. Once a customer is enrolled, and has cashed a check, their information is on file; and they can come in and cash their next check (be it a week, a month or a year later) hassle-free.
“We unintentionally shorted a customer on his payout recently,” said Mr. Abrego. “But we had his contact info in the system; so were able to rectify the oversight; and he was very happy.”
Mr. Abrego has benefited from the reduced management oversight required for check cashing, allowing him to focus his time on other core areas of the business. In addition, as a numbers guy, he has been thrilled with the insight Paycheck Secure offers into what each clerk is doing. He can see how many checks they’ve cashed on a shift; what fees were generated; and if there were any discrepancies. The reporting functionality is also really helpful.
“I didn’t realize what I was missing – but with Paycheck Secure I can view check cashing data by an individual clerk or date range – now I can clearly see profits generated and better manage our staffing levels,” says Mr. Abrego.
