Varuhushandelns datorisering före 1980 : Transkript av ett vittnesseminarium vid Tekniska museet i Stockholm den 29 september 2008

The witness seminar ”The computerization of the department stores” took place at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm on 29 September 2008 and was led by Gustav Sjöblom. The panel was composed of representatives of four major Swedish department store chains (Turitz & Co, Åhléns, KF, and IKEA) as well as representatives of two suppliers of cash registers (IBM and ADS Anker). The seminar was divided into two parts, the first dealing with the initial period up to c. 1975, when mainframe computers were introduced to rationalize back office functions such as ordering, invoicing and the production of documents. The second part dealt with the development from the early 1970s, when computers were introduced into the stores. Turitz was an early and successful user of order systems and direct measurement at the counter. Åhléns was a pioneer in OCR-reading and the use of in-house terminals for ordering, which was deemed so successful that the computerization of the checkouts was delayed until the 1980s. KF appointed a group to deal with the department stores from 1968 and began full-scale computerization with the KAP system for furniture sales in 1975. IKEA was a late starter in the use of computers, but had a rapid and successful systems development from c. 1968, culminating in the KTS system developed between 1975 and 1977.