Market Stall
POS setup and configuration for a market stall. From an empty account to selling outdoors: kit that survives a stall, the settings, and the daily flow.
What it does
A market stall lives and dies by speed. You have a folding table, a few metres of pitch, a queue that appears all at once when the market fills, and no mains socket. This guide sets POSolid up for exactly that: a till that is a phone in your apron, a menu short enough to make each sale one tap, and a pack-down that takes seconds because there is nothing to unplug.
The short version: a phone and a power bank are a complete till. Everything else on this page is optional.
What you need
| Thing | Why you need it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A phone or small tablet | your till — takes the order and the payment | Whatever you already own. A phone is genuinely enough for a stall; a tablet is easier to read in sunlight. |
| Mobile internet | POSolid is a cloud app and needs a connection while you trade | Your phone's own data, or a hotspot. Markets are famous for poor signal — see "Trading on a pitch you do not control" below. |
| A power bank | a market day is longer than a phone battery | The most common reason a stall stops trading is a flat phone, not a software problem. |
| Fiscal printer — depends on your country | required by law in some countries to record sales | In Poland: Posnet, Novitus or Elzab. Pick a model you can carry and power at the stall. See Supported Fiscal Printers, or Fiscal Printers in Other Countries if you trade elsewhere. |
| Optional: a card terminal | if you want to take cards as well as cash | From your payment provider, works on its own. You record which method was used so your takings reconcile. |
| Optional: a thermal printer | paper receipts and copies | An ESC/POS printer plugs straight into an Android phone with a USB OTG cable — see Supported Thermal Printers. |
| Optional: a second phone | a second pair of hands on a busy Saturday | Any phone with a browser and a staff PIN. Both see the same orders. |
"Optional" means your choice — not an upsell. Every optional line above is hardware you may or may not want; none of it unlocks anything in POSolid. Every feature named in this guide is included in your subscription from day one, with no per-device or per-feature charge. The only thing you would ever spend money on is the physical equipment itself — and only if you decide you want it.
How everything connects
A stall has no router and needs none:
Phone (POSolid) --( mobile data )----> POSolid
Phone --( USB OTG cable )--> Printer, if you use one
- Your phone reaches POSolid over the internet. Nothing is installed on it beyond a home-screen shortcut — POSolid runs in the browser.
- The Print Agent only matters if you print. Take cash and hand over food without a paper receipt and you never install it at all.
- No router, no network setup, no IP addresses. A printer connects by cable, straight to the phone.
Getting started
- Create your organization — see Create Your Account. Set your country, currency and, in Poland, your tax settings.
- Build a short menu in Menu → Catalog — one category, your items, prices that are easy to handle in cash.
- Strip the register down in Settings → Orders configuration: table assignment off, order type selector off, pager numbers off, and require payment before accepting order on — at a stall the food and the money move together.
- Poland: add your fiscal printer and turn on its fiscal option — see Supported Fiscal Printers.
- Add your staff and give each person a PIN if more than one of you serves — see Quick Access with a PIN.
- Install POSolid as an app on the phone so it opens full-screen from the home screen — see Install the App.
- Do a dry run at home: one sale, one payment, then find it in Reports. Do not learn the flow with a queue in front of you.
Trading on a pitch you do not control
A market is the least predictable place POSolid runs, and two of its quirks are worth planning around.
Signal is not guaranteed. POSolid is a cloud app: with no connection you cannot take orders. Markets in halls, basements and cellars are the usual offenders. Before your first day, stand on your actual pitch and check you have data there — not in the car park. If the pitch is marginal, a small 4G router with an external aerial often finds signal a phone cannot.
Battery is the real constraint. Screen-on time on a bright day drains a phone fast. Bring a power bank sized for the whole market rather than half of it, and top up between customers instead of waiting for the warning.
Keep the menu ruthlessly short. A stall usually sells five to fifteen things. Put them in one category, skip variants you do not truly need, and every sale becomes one tap and a payment. Modifier groups earn their place only where a choice genuinely changes what you hand over.
Turn nearly everything off. In Settings → Orders configuration switch off table assignment, the order type selector and pager numbers. What is left is the fastest possible order screen — which is the whole point at a market.
Recommended setup
Minimum — one person, cash only
A phone and a power bank. One category of items, payment on, nothing else. This is a complete working till that costs you nothing in hardware.
Recommended — cards and receipts
Add a card terminal, and a small thermal printer on a USB OTG cable if guests ask for receipts. Still no router and still nothing to configure on site.
Full — regular pitch, two people
Add a second phone so two of you serve at once, staff PINs, and — if the signal on your pitch is unreliable — a 4G router with a better aerial than a phone has. Use the hour-by-hour report to work out which markets actually cover their pitch fee.
Key things to know
- Check the signal on your pitch, not near it. This is the most common surprise on a first market day.
- Bring more battery than you think you need. A flat phone is a closed stall.
- A short menu is a fast menu. Every extra choice is a tap you make hundreds of times a day.
- Take payment with the order. At a stall the food and the money move together, so leave payment-first on.
- Poland: the fiscal printer is not optional, and the daily report has to be printed to close the fiscal day — do it before you pack down, not at home.
- Reports tell you which markets to keep. Compare takings per market day and drop the pitches that do not pay for themselves.
FAQ
Q: Do I really only need a phone?
A: Yes. A phone with mobile data is a complete POSolid till. Printer, terminal and a second device are all things you add only if you want them.
Q: What if there is no signal on my pitch?
A: You cannot take orders — POSolid runs in the cloud and has no offline mode. Check the pitch in advance, and consider a 4G router with an external aerial if the spot is marginal.
Q: Can I print receipts without a computer?
A: Yes, on Android — an ESC/POS thermal printer plugs straight into the phone with a USB OTG cable. See Supported Thermal Printers.
Q: Do I need a fiscal printer at a market?
A: In Poland, recording sales fiscally is a legal requirement and it does not change because you are outdoors. Choose a portable model. Outside Poland, no — see Fiscal Printers in Other Countries.
Q: Two of us serve on Saturdays. Do we need two subscriptions?
A: No. Extra users and devices are included — add the second person in Staff & Roles, give them a PIN, and open POSolid on their phone.
Q: Can I see which market was worth it?
A: Yes — the reports break takings down by day and hour, so you can compare pitches directly.