Retail information systems: In the retail sales industry, the most prominent operational system is the ______ system.

Introduction / Context:
Retailers rely on front-line systems that capture each transaction as it occurs. The canonical example is the point-of-sale (POS) system, which records item scans, prices, promotions, payments, and returns. The question asks you to identify the core operational system widely used across retail environments.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Retail involves high-volume, real-time transactions at checkout.
• Systems must integrate with inventory, pricing, loyalty, and payments.
• Answer choices include terms not representing retail operational systems.

Concept / Approach:
POS systems connect scanners, terminals, and back-office databases to manage sales and inventory decrement in real time. They enable receipt printing, tax calculation, tender management, and feed analytics such as basket analysis. Other options (programming languages or obsolete hardware labels) are not retail operational systems per se.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Industry references and vendor ecosystems (POS terminals, software suites) confirm POS as the central retail system.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• COBOL: a programming language, not a retail application.
• ACM: not a standard retail system name in this context.
• PC/XT: an old hardware platform, not a retail operations system.

Common Pitfalls:
Mixing up technologies (languages/hardware) with application systems; POS is the application category used by retail.

Final Answer:
POS (point-of-sale)