Restaurant Job Board Blog

Well it is Christmas and its party time…at least for your customers and staff it is! Hopefully you’ll be able to take some time off to spend with your loved ones over the Holidays too.

Although it is the season of goodwill (and at the risk of raining on your parade..) I wanted to take a minute to remind you to be extra vigilant about your stock this season.

Opportunistic thieves will waste no time to take unlocked stock off your hands so you need to be aware of this and take action to prevent it.  Just do a search on Google news and you will see everyday restaurants and bars being robbed by external and internal thieves during the holidays.

Prevent Staff Thefts

Staff will be attending many parties over the holiday season and will no doubt need to bring the obligatory bottle of wine or spirits with them. You need to ensure that it hasn’t come from your bar at your expense. The most likely items that will catch a dishonest staff member’s eye are Vodka, Jack Daniels, Tequila, Wine and perhaps even Baileys. These are all party worthy drinks, though I’m sure you’ll agree that this list is not exhausted.

By now you should have an idea as to the approximate sales quantities of these items. If you’ve been undertaking your inventories and your nightly spot checks then you should know whether you need 5 bottles or 15 bottles on an average night.

Taking the example that you need just 5 bottles, make this your Par Stock. In other words the quantity of stock needed to service an average night of service in your bar. This will be made up in any number of ways: 2 bottles on the shelf, 2 opened and one in the speed rack (bar-well) as an example.

At any time during the night, there should always be those five bottles in the bar. Some may be empty as the night progresses and will be in the bottle bin, but you should be looking out or at least aware that five physical bottles of that product exist in the bar.

If additional bottles are needed from the store, do a swap of the empty bottle for the full bottle, maintaining your par stock of 5 bottles for that item.
By the end of the night, you will know that none of your bottles on the bar have been removed, if you’ve been keeping an eye. Do a count at the end of the night of these few items to confirm.

Of course this is all dependent on you being the only key holder to the stores, that no access is available to unauthorized personnel to the storage areas and that you’ve been counting correctly. By keeping a close eye on these items or your items that always seem to be short following an inventory, you will get more of an idea as to when the items are going missing and start asking more questions of your staff.

Preventing External Thieves

Sadly, Christmas time is very lucrative for thieves. People let their guard down, carry extra cash around to buy gifts, store gifts before Christmas and Food & Beverage Businesses stock up on products for the busy party nights and carry larger amounts of cash on the premises.

Here are a few tips to prevent a robbery in your business over Christmas:

• Keep the exterior of the bar well lit, including alleyways.
• Do not leave deliveries outside unattended at anytime.
• Ensure the entrances and exits are monitored by camera/security.
• Vary the times you drop your cash to the bank to avoid a predictable routine.
• Keep all stores locked securely at all times and keep keys safe.

Nobody wants to be another crime statistic and we all owe it to our families to protect our own safety as well as that of our staff and customers.
Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous Christmas & New Year

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Barry Chandler is Managing Director of www.manageyourbaronline.com , the complete online resource for  independent bar and club owners and operators, designed to assist bar owners manage their business more effectively and provide all the tools/downloads/templates/articles for prospective bar owners to research and plan their new bar.