Which historical innovation first allowed retailers to automatically record sales transactions while preventing employee theft, marking the birth of modern point-of-sale systems?

The evolution of retail technology has dramatically transformed how businesses track sales and inventory. Before digital systems dominated the landscape, mechanical innovation laid the groundwork for modern commerce. This poll explores a pivotal moment in retail history that revolutionized checkout efficiency and data collection, setting the stage for today's sophisticated POS systems that integrate payment processing, inventory management, and customer analytics.

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The cash register, patented by James Ritty in 1879 after observing ship propeller counting mechanisms
The Hollerith punched card system, developed in 1889 for the US Census but quickly adopted by department stores
The Regna Billing Machine of 1914, which combined a typewriter with an adding machine for creating receipts
The NCR Class 2000 electronic calculator from 1954, the first device to digitally track daily sales