Liquid assets: when a gallon of beverage alcohol can represent $300 worth of sales, it pays to keep an eye peeled

Cheers, June, 2005 by Cheryl Ursin

"When I opened my first bar in 1993, my sales were excellent. I was exceeding my sales goals. But I had no profit," Carroll explains. "I realized I needed to be watching, not my costs, but my margins, my bottom line. I don't care that I sold 200 Captain Morgan drinks. I can see the empties, my system tracks those, so I know that brand is popular. What I need to know is that $200's worth of sales is missing from that shift. The cash is more important. That's the report I need."

And by being able to do an audit of what was poured during every day or shift, the missing sales can be pinpointed to a specific bartender, allowing them to be held accountable for ringing what was poured.

POOR CONTROL OR POUR CONTROL?

The second kind of beverage-management system has a similar goal: to track what a bartender is using and ensure that it is actually being sold. These are the "perpetual" or "virtual inventory" systems that record drinks as they are being poured.

These systems often control portion size. When a drink order is entered, the liquor gun, the cocktail tower or the pour spouts in the appropriate bottles will only dispense a certain amount of each product.

According to Berg, the largest and oldest supplier of portion-control systems for the bar industry, only about 10 to 15 percent of all restaurants and bars use such systems, though that number is growing.

Operators can be concerned about their customers' perception of the technology. "And customers do notice," says Mark Flaschner, president of Alcohol Controls, a company that sells several different kinds of systems. "Every operator who has bought a portion-control system from us has had that concern."

FAIR SHOT

But, says Flaschner, it's all in how you present the system to them. The customer's concern is that the drink they get in your bar is going to be weak because portion size is being controlled. Bartenders who are over pouring, giving product away or outright stealing can compound the problem by speaking negatively about it to customers.

"You've got to take a stand and not let your bartenders talk negatively," says Flaschner. He suggests using shot glasses, dispensing the product from the system into the shot glass, to show customers for the first month or so that they are getting what they paid for. "If the system is properly presented, the only ones who will complain will be the ones who have been getting free drinks and most operators don't mind losing them," he says.

Other portion-control system experts say that the fear that customers won't like such a system is unfounded. Curt Dollar, president of Berg, points to a study, done by a hospitality school, which surveyed restaurant operators both before and after a Berg system was installed about customer impressions. "There was no noticeable difference in customer attitudes," Dollar reports.

Azbar America's Cantrell agrees. "Customers don't care," he says. "None of the places who bought a portion-control system from us have gone out of business because of customer perceptions. Customers want a good drink at the right price: it all boils down to that."