Marta runs a small chain of optician stores. Her flagship store, the busiest one, serves about 200 customers a day. Five years ago she bought a ticket dispenser because it was the cheap option. Today she added up the full cost, and the number surprised her. Marta is an example; the numbers are not: they come from public prices in the Spanish market.
Day 1: a purchase that looked cheap
The classic "take a number" dispenser cost between €12 and €28 (Integraequipamiento). But on its own it was useless: Marta also needed a stand, an LED display costing €228 to €264, and a €38 remote for each counter (Consumibles TPV). Total: around €468.
Her other two options were:
A touchscreen kiosk with a printer: from €1,260 to over €4,000 (Reactiva Publicidad). With software license and installation, around €3,435.
A QR virtual queue: no hardware. Just a stand with the code, around €25, plus a monthly fee.
Marta chose what hurt least that day.
Month 3: the paper that never runs out
Marta's tickets come from pre-cut rolls of 2,000 numbers, at about €2.40 each (Consumibles TPV). With 200 customers a day she uses 30 rolls a year. Had she chosen the kiosk, it would be about 67 thermal rolls at €0.86 to €1.87 each (La Casa del TPV, Rollos de Papel).
It's not a fortune. But it's a cost that never ends and grows every time business picks up. With a virtual queue, paper costs zero. And no Qiklet plan limits the number of tickets: the fee doesn't go up when more customers come in.
Year 2: the printer breaks down on a Monday at 10 a.m.
The parts that suffer most are the thermal print head and the cutter. In a heavily used kiosk, the print head reaches the end of its life in four or five years, and the part alone costs €65 to €110 (MercadoLibre). If a technician is needed, labor runs €60 to €180 an hour, plus €30 to €55 just to open the ticket (Tecnicanaria).
But the worst part isn't the bill. It's Monday at 10 a.m., with a full waiting room and no way to hand out numbers.
Every day: the minutes nobody writes down
Changing the roll. Clearing paper jams. Picking tickets up off the floor. Answering "how many people are ahead of me?". Marta's team has never tracked it, but a conservative estimate is 10 minutes a day.
Over 300 working days that's 50 hours. At an average labor cost of €26.18 per hour in Spain (INE), it adds up to €1,309 a year. It's the biggest item of all, more than paper and maintenance combined.
With Qiklet, customers take their own ticket and follow it on their phone. Staff use three buttons: call, serve and finish. With those three clicks, Qiklet measures how long each customer waits and how long each service takes, and shows you your peak hours. Marta's dispenser has never given her a single data point. If you're wondering what you lose by managing service by gut feeling, we cover it in The blind spot in your operations.
What ends up in the bin
Many of Marta's customers toss their ticket in the paper recycling bin, but thermal paper can't be recycled because of the chemicals it contains (Cero Residuo). It belongs in general waste. A center with 800 customers a day throws away more than 20 km of paper strip a year. We go deeper in The hidden environmental cost of paper tickets.
Year 5: the full bill
Marta adds it all up: purchase, paper, maintenance and her team's time. Her €468 dispenser has cost her €7,523. With a virtual queue she would have paid €1,765. A difference of almost €5,800.
Here's the 5-year total by business size (300 working days a year):
50 customers a day (professional office, clinic, local shop): dispenser €3,987 · kiosk €8,445 · QR virtual queue €1,765
200 customers a day (an optician like Marta's, pharmacy, medical center): dispenser €7,523 · kiosk €12,907 · QR virtual queue €1,765
800 customers a day (hospital, city hall): dispenser €11,870 · kiosk €23,066 · QR virtual queue €2,965
The QR figure uses Qiklet's subscription paid monthly: €29/month (Essential plan) in the first two cases and €49/month (Professional plan) in the third. Your plan depends on the number of counters and locations; tickets are always unlimited. With annual billing, which has a 20% discount, it drops to €1,417 and €2,377. With many counters or several locations, the Multi-location plan (€149/month) comes to €8,965 over five years: less than a dispenser or a kiosk in a high-traffic center.
What Marta would do today
If she could go back to day 1, Marta wouldn't look at the price on the box. She'd look at what it would cost her every year. And if some of her customers don't use a smartphone, she'd combine both: QR for most people and a tablet at the counter for those who need it. Nobody is left out and the savings remain.
Do your own math
Multiply your daily customers by 300, and the minutes your team spends on the dispenser by €26 an hour. If the result surprises you like it surprised Marta, try Qiklet free for 30 days, no card and no commitment. Plans from €29 a month, all with unlimited tickets. Want to see how it works first? We explain it in What is a virtual queue and how it works, step by step.
Note: this study was prepared using public prices and data found online. If you have real data from your business, we're happy to update the article: leave us a message through the feedback button. Thank you!