Best Seafood Market POS Software: How Madara’s Seafood Wins With Toast

Madara’s Seafood, located in Newtown’s Farmers Market just twenty minutes north of Philadelphia, offers a selection of seafood to both locals and tourists. The menu features over 20 varieties of fish, along with house-made soups, seafood salads, sandwiches, and rice bowls.

Recently, Madara’s made the switch to Toast. We sat down with owner Joseph Madara, a seafood veteran with 41 years of industry experience and a culinary background. Joseph shared what prompted the change and how Toast has helped streamline day-to-day operations.

After decades in the industry, Joseph knows a good catch when he sees one—even when it comes to technology.

Navigating service in a busy market

Running a seafood market in a tight farmers' market environment comes with unique operational challenges. Space is at a premium, customer volume is high, and orders flood in from take-out to dine-in.

For Joseph, the constraints were apparent: working within about an 800 square feet space while managing a team of 16 employees, all serving customers in different ways. Peak hours can be chaotic. “On Thursday and Friday nights, customers often wait in long lines just to order,” Joseph notes.

In this environment, every second counts. Customers buying fresh seafood by the pound also want to order prepared menu items. The challenge was keeping both operations moving efficiently without creating bottlenecks or forcing customers to wait in multiple lines. Madara’s old system simply couldn't keep pace with the demands of a high-volume market setting. 

And so Joseph decided to upgrade to Toast Retail.

Making the switch to Toast POS

Joseph's biggest concern about switching systems was the transition period. Would training take weeks? Would operations suffer during the changeover?

Those worries quickly evaporated. "Toast made onboarding very simple. It only took about a day to get the staff trained on the system," Joseph recalls. The familiarity factor helped immensely: "A lot of my employees were familiar with Toast and already knew how to use it."

The actual installation went just as smoothly. "[Installation] was 100% painless. I had zero issues. Our sales rep came in, and we had an installer while we were busy, and everything went smoothly," he says.

When asked what has stood out about Toast Retail the most so far, Joseph doesn't hesitate: "Everything that [Toast] offers is a plus for me, it's not just one item."

Madara’s went all in on Toast Retail. Toast installed two terminals and six handhelds, added marketing and gift cards, online ordering, payroll, and more. Once the switch was finalized, Joseph noticed big-time results. 

How Toast Retail has improved operations

Once Madara’s was (quickly) onboarded on Toast, the impact was almost immediate. 

Streamlining daily workflow

For a seafood market, streamlining the scale to check out process has proven particularly valuable. "The scale prints out a barcode, and every handheld has a wireless scanner next to it. So we scan the barcode, and it goes right into the system," Joseph explains. "This was essential for us. And no wires were a huge perk."

The barcode integration means that weighing and pricing fresh seafood happens in one smooth motion, eliminating manual entry errors or getting caught in wires, speeding up the checkout process.

Communication to the kitchen also improved significantly. As Joseph puts it,  "The communication from the front of the house to the back of the house is a lot easier with Toast’s kitchen monitor.” 

Enhancing the customer experience

These operational advancements shine when everything is running smoothly, but they matter just as much when it isn’t. When something goes wrong, Toast Retail makes it faster and less stressful to set things right.

 "If there's a mistake with an order and a customer calls back, it's much easier with Toast to find the order, and it's easier to find customer info and receipt numbers," Joseph says. "It's a lot easier than what we had before. With Toast, it's easier to give refunds or take care of customers in general."

That simplicity extends to areas that are traditionally time-consuming and error-prone, like gift cards. Between tracking balances, processing redemptions, and training staff on clunky workflows, gift cards often slow down the checkout experience. With Toast, those friction points disappear.

Even simple tasks have become more efficient. "The processing of gift cards is a lot easier—it takes two steps, versus seven steps with our old system," he notes. 

By stripping away unnecessary steps of service, Toast changes how teams work on the floor. When systems are easier to use, staff can focus less on the screen and more on the customer in front of them.

Empowering staff

The mobility that Toast handhelds provide has solved the space constraints that once limited operations. "I have 16 staff members working at a time, so I’m able to station eight people out front waiting on guests at all times," Joseph explains. 

This freedom has transformed the customer experience. "[My staff] isn't stuck to one station. They can walk around with the guests with the handheld and sell them different items," he says.

The real efficiency gain comes from the ability to handle multiple order types simultaneously. "While a customer is buying a pound of salmon, their order for a sandwich can be entered on the handheld, which can then be made while the salmon is being weighed and packed up," Joseph explains.

During those busy rushes, the team has developed a strategic workflow: "On Friday nights we get very busy, so all the takeout orders are taken care of at the terminal while the handhelds process dine-in orders." This separation keeps lines moving and ensures no customer gets overlooked.

Supporting business owners

Perhaps the biggest impact has been on Joseph's ability to manage the business remotely. "I have payroll through Toast, which has saved me a ton of money. It's all in one; my hours are all there from my employees," he says. "The dashboard online makes it very easy to do payroll."

The mobile access has been a game-changer for Joseph. " I can sign in on my laptop and phone, which I couldn't do with my last POS," Joseph explains. "With the old POS, I had to be physically at my location to do any kind of paperwork or check my inventory."

Real cost savings

While Toast costs Joseph slightly more each month, it saves him more money overall. A key reason is DAVO, which automatically files his sales taxes—eliminating late fees, penalties, and third-party costs. “That alone is worth what I pay monthly for Toast,” he says. 

The bottom line?

By consolidating everything into one system, Joseph now saves about $300 a month.

How to switch your POS to Toast Retail

Switching POS systems is a big decision, but as Madara’s experience shows, the transition doesn’t have to be difficult—and the right platform can completely transform your business. From simpler gift card processing to empowering staff with mobile tools that keep lines moving, Toast Retail helps retailers streamline operations while delivering better customer experiences at every touchpoint.

Ready to connect every part of your business with an all-in-one platform as Joseph did? Toast Retail brings convenience, flexibility, and the tools your team needs to serve customers with confidence. See how it works with a free Toast Retail demo.