You would never want your point of sale system to be down because you ran out of paper. Receipt and remote printers are the parts of your point of sale system most prone to failure. The same is true with regard to not have a supply of ribbons to use when your existing ribbon gets too light to read. This is also true for printers for sale. As long as computers still have parallel printer connections, parallel receipt printers will be a smart choice for business owners. According to one study, the printer ink cartridge business is responsible for $21 billion (US) per year in sales.
Point of sale dealers today are passing the manufacturer warranty directly to the business owner. Which is similar to laser printers for sale most of the time. Concerned about the burgeoning cost of printers ink, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have established testing standards for printers. They did so because of the superior speed and reliability of the parallel interface compared to the then standard serial connection.
If you want to have your customers return for future visits then must avoid this situation at all costs. This means that anyone who refills a Lexmark cartridge for reuse could face charges and legal action. Since receipt printers are always located next to the point of sale terminal, long distance cable runs are not an issue.
Other than that you should not have any major problems exchanging a dot matrix for thermal at the point of sale. Shawn Lead has been working in the printer and ink industry for over 6 years. Usually this is the exact opposite of cheap printers for sale. This helps greatly with receipt printers as it keeps the printer cable securely in place and difficult to accidentally come loose.
Please be sure before you buy that the printer truly will work with multiple interfaces. Be sure to consult your owner’s manual or your software provider for more details. Your customers are not inconvenienced by not receiving a receipt, guest check or by having their food come out of the kitchen slow because the kitchen printer is down.