Inside a Bohaus Sprint: A Pawn Shop

The situation

The client is an owner-led pawn shop. One or two stores, the owner on the floor most days, a few counter staff who write loans and buy outright, and someone part time who lists items online. Loans, buys and police reporting run through pawn software such as Bravo or PawnMaster. Online sales go through the shop's own site, eBay or another marketplace.

Nothing in the shop has a SKU in the retail sense. Every guitar, ring, drill and watch is one of a kind. At intake, the description depends on who is at the counter and how busy it is. One person writes "Dewalt drill." Another writes the model, the battery count and the condition. Photos may or may not exist.

So inventory is a guess. The owner cannot easily say what is in the case, what has been sitting too long, or what similar items sold for. Listing online means re-photographing and re-researching each item, so most never get listed.

What the sprint finds

In Discover, we watch intake at the counter, pull a sample of recent records from the pawn software, and walk the floor and the back room with the owner.

The records tell the story. The same type of item is described a dozen different ways. Brand and model are often missing. Condition is a single word, if anything. Forfeited loans move into sale inventory with whatever description was typed at intake.

In Diagnose, structured item records rank first. Clean records make everything downstream possible: searching inventory, pricing from history, spotting aged stock and listing online. The legal side, including holding periods, police reporting and loan terms, is already handled in the pawn software and stays with people.

What it builds

In Build, we add an AI step to intake that works alongside the pawn software rather than replacing it.

At the counter, staff take a few photos and type or speak a short note. AI drafts a structured record: category, brand, model, serial number where visible, condition on a defined scale, notable features and included accessories. For common categories it pulls recent comparable sales so staff see a price range. The counter person checks the draft, corrects anything wrong and saves it into the pawn software. AI never makes the loan or the offer.

Then we clean up what is already on the shelf. Existing sale inventory is photographed in batches and run through the same step, so old one-line descriptions become structured records. Staff verify each one. This is the part that takes longest and changes the most.

When an item moves to sale, its record becomes a draft listing with title, description and photos, ready for the person who handles online sales to review and post.

Hand over

In Hand over, the owner and a lead counter person learn the intake step in depth, including the condition scale and how to correct the AI. Counter staff get a short session at the counter, on real items. A playbook covers what to photograph, what AI does not decide, and who owns the system.

The owner gets a dashboard of inventory by category and age, items listed online, and items sitting past the shop's chosen threshold, plus a 30/60/90-day roadmap.

What changes

Inventory stops being a guess. The owner can search the case by brand or category and see what has been there too long. Pricing starts from history rather than memory. Listings go up in minutes instead of waiting for a slow weekend, so more of the inventory reaches buyers outside the store. Intake looks the same no matter who is behind the counter.

What this means for your business

If every item is unique, the data has to be built the moment it walks in the door.

For a pawn shop, that is structured intake records. For a consignment or resale store, the same. For a moving company, an inventory built from walkthrough photos.

That is a Bohaus Sprint: six weeks, fixed scope, four phases (Discover, Diagnose, Build, Hand over), and one live system inside the tools you already use, with a trained team, a playbook, a dashboard and a 30/60/90-day roadmap.