Apple is ramping up its retail stores for the holiday buying season, and one of the biggest changes will be retiring its Windows CE-based handheld sales system for the iPod touch, according to ifoAppleStore.

The iPod touch-based point of sale (POS) systems will include an add-on scanner that lets employees scan multiple barcodes at the same time. The new system should let employees scan a product's price code, serial number, and product code in a single pass. In the case of the iPhone, it will scan the IMEI and ICCI bar codes, too.

In addition to being able to show off Apple technology, switching to an iPod touch-based POS means employees won't have to rely on the Windows-based EasyPay devices they currently use. The EasyPay POS devices apparently are crash-prone, offer slow performance, and drop their Wi-Fi connections, according to store employees.

Apple is also phasing out the color coded t-shirt scheme for employees and will be moving to the same color shirt for all staff. The change is in response to customer feedback saying the multiple shirt color plan was confusing.

Shoppers will see the new retail scanners and shirt colors in Apple's stores soon.