Store updates shouldn't live on a whiteboard in the backroom
What happens when AI reads every note your team posts
Store updates shouldn’t live on a whiteboard in the backroom
Hardware stores run on informal communication. A customer asks for something you don’t stock. An associate notices an empty hook. Someone spots water damage in aisle 3.
These observations matter. They’re the raw material for better inventory decisions, better customer service, better store operations.
But most of the time, they don’t get captured at all.
The problem with store communication
Here’s how it usually works: a manager does a store walk, jots things down on a piece of paper, then communicates each issue verbally to individual team members. If you’re lucky, there’s a whiteboard in the backroom with a running list.
The information lives in someone’s head, on a scrap of paper, or on a whiteboard that gets erased next week. There’s no way to ask “what issues came up this month?” and get an answer. No patterns. No history.
What if AI could read the feed?
We built a News Feed into FastQuery—a shared space where anyone can post store updates. Customer request, shelf issue, delivery delay, whatever.
The difference: FastQuery’s AI reads every post.
Ask “What’s going on in the store?” and you get a summary. Ask “What products have customers requested this month?” and the AI pulls together a list. Then you can create a task to follow up—without leaving the conversation.
It’s not magic. It’s just making unstructured information queryable.
See it in action:
Why this matters for independent retailers
Big chains have systems for this. They have corporate software that tracks everything, dedicated processes, regional managers who aggregate reports.
Independent retailers with multiple locations don’t have that infrastructure. The owner can’t be in every store. They rely on store managers to surface what’s happening—but the information gets fragmented across locations, stuck in separate whiteboards and verbal updates that never make it to HQ.
That’s exactly why this kind of tool matters more for them. One place to see what’s happening across all your stores. One less thing that falls through the cracks.