More Hours in the Week

This article is brought to you by Cash Depot.

“What would you do with 20 extra labor hours per store, every week?” asked Doug Marquis, chief revenue officer at Cash Depot. “Improve foodservice? Clean the store more often? Spend more time with customers?”

Those hours might already be available to retailers, Marquis noted, if they update how they handle cash. “Manual cash management can require about 20 hours per week in labor at the store level,” he said.

Employees might have to prepare the till, break up large-denomination bills or make bank runs—tasks that require time and careful attention. 

If workers no longer had to handle those cash management tasks, there could be more time for restocking shelves or improving merchandising, Marquis said. “And retailers can reclaim that time if they have a better way to manage the store cash.”

It’s not just hours in the day or week, either. Those hours make a difference in hiring and scheduling, too. Right now, convenience retailers are spending considerable resources hiring and training new employees.

Last year, the average cost to hire a part-time associate was $1,057, while the average cost for a full-time sales associate was $1,096, according to the NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2025 Data. Average turnover rates clocked in at 108.8% for full-time sales associates and 163.3% for part-time sales associates.

“Stores aren’t operating with unlimited pools of experienced labor,” Marquis said. “When turnover exceeds 100%, retailers can’t afford to build store operations around processes that require experienced employees to constantly intervene.”

He added that there could be more time for managers to train and coach employees if managers weren’t busy with cash management. 

Operational processes like bank runs and preparing deposits can compete for limited labor capacity, according to Marquis. “Retailers should be spending labor where it matters,” he said. 

Tools like Cash Depot’s BANK IN A BOX can help reallocate time at work by automating cash management processes, according to Marquis. “It changes what convenience employees’ hours can accomplish,” he said. “BANK IN A BOX is more than a cash management solution; it is a labor-productivity system.” 

Marquis said BANK IN A BOX isn’t just about recycling cash, but recycling employee labor back into meaningful tasks like foodservice and execution that benefit the store itself. “Cash recycling puts your money back to work,” Marquis said. “Cash automation puts your people back to work.”

This is the second article in a two-part series from Cash Depot. Read part one to learn more about how automation allows staff to focus on driving revenue.

Cash management Labor costs