Email Bob |
|
Don't let your bartenders rob you blind!
Do bartenders steal?
I've worked with some outstanding bartenders over the years, men
and women who are honest, hard-working, team/family-oriented and
loyal. I'd like to think all bartenders are like that, but according
to some, I'm misguided.
Joe Motzi of Entrepreneur Consultants in New York wrote an article
on the subject for Restaurant Hospitality magazine, in which he
said: "The theft is incredible! In the past three years we
ran across only one bartender who wasn't stealing from his employer.
That's out of about 1,000 clients! Only one bartender went by the
rules of the house!"
Employee Service Reports in Fort Myers, Florida, a surveillance
service to restaurants and lounges since 1950, reports that more
than 50 percent of bartenders surveyed are not recording sales.
That's a polite word for stealing. After weeding out the undesirable
employees, the theft problem goes away - at least until after the
new hires are comfortable with taking advantage of management.
A Michigan bar owner I know fired her last nine bartenders for stealing
- in just one year. The owner of the Au Main bar in New York City
has filed a
$5 million lawsuit against 12 former bartenders and his chief financial
officer for "working together (collusion) against the house,
not recording drink sales and splitting the money amongst them for
the past 8 years". The CFO changed the numbers in the books
to cover up the missing inventory. |
 |
The temptation for a bartender to steal, and the
ease of doing it, is scary. Receiving cash each time you sell a
drink creates the temptation to keep the money (is anyone watching?).
The drink sale is simply not rung up. The money for the drink goes
straight into the cash register drawer by hitting "00"
(No Sale), or they work out of an open drawer. They keep track of
how much they are "over" by using a type of abacus system
- 3 match sticks in a nearby empty glass equals $30, or a black
sneaker mark on the floor equals $20 (3 black marks and they're
up about $60).
The bartender takes the "over" out of the cash register
drawer before turning in their money. Selling a cup of coffee or
a "virgin" daiquiri (non-alcoholic) increases the temptation
for bartenders or servers to take that money, too. Most bars do
not inventory non-alcoholic type drinks, and most do not require
their bartenders/servers to issue a receipt for each sale.
While taking from you, there's a good chance they're also cheating
your customers. Your bar might feature "tooters", which
are 24 shots of liquor served in a one-ounce tube. The bartender
is supposed to sell them for a buck apiece, but decides to charge
the customer $2 - and pockets $24 at the customer's expense. Of
course, the house gets hurt when the customer discovers the scam. |
| Many who steal don't consider it stealing.
They're so good at it and they've been doing it for so long it's
just the way they do business. They have numerous excuses "at
the ready" for any kind of confrontation with a customer or
manager. |
The theft process starts when first hired. The bad
bartender usually looks for areas where management is lax. They
run little "spot tests" - seeing what will work and what
won't. Once it's established what works it's full steam ahead.
Another type is the overt thief - one who steals openly, thinking
no one, including the customer, realizes what he or she is doing.
Professional spotters describe this type of bartender theft as "wide
open". These people fear no one - customer or management.
This is reason enough to use professional surveillance companies,
or spotters, routinely. |
Spotters are hired to watch for, and report, any
act of theft by a bartender, waitress, manager, or any employee
working on the premise.
However, there can be problems with spotters. Many don't understand
a bartender's organization, motion, or actual transactions. Many
are also "minimum wage plus expenses" employees of a local
security company and have never tended a bar before. The best spotter
is one who has bar experience and can detect a discrepancy in another
bartender's work routines.
It takes a highly disciplined individual with a strong sense of
high personal values to avoid the "natural" tendency of
theft available to a bartender. Where do you find them? Hire through
referrals and references whenever possible and remember, the best
deterrent to bartender theft is the manager's watchful eye. |
| The recipe for theft |
| There are four basic conditions that
make up the environment for bartender theft: |
| Opportunity |
When bartenders see that little to no
effort is being made to control the inventory, i.e., no weekly counting
of liquor, beer, wine, no draft beer controls in place, no documentation
for waste (waste sheets) and free drinks, allowing bartenders to
"Z" their own register, allowing "free pour",
wrong glassware, and more, then you have created the opportunity
for theft. The fewer the controls, the greater the temptation to
steal, and the easier it is to steal. Most owners/managers are fooled
by sales. You think everything is just fine when you see big numbers
coming in through the register, but it's not sales, it's the costs
that ultimately determine the amount of profit. Would you rather
make ten cents on the dollar, or forty cents on the dollar? Without
controlling your costs, you're probably making the former. |
| Need or greed |
Drugs, gambling, excessive indebtedness, lavish lifestyle,
kids needing college tuition, vacations, little display of self-discipline
and basic values, few outside interests, constant partying, etc.,
creates a need for extra income. When hiring, it's best to call
previous employers, do a background check that includes credit and
criminal history, confirm previous jobs and conduct a thorough interview
that includes testing before hiring. Do not rely on your "gut feeling" about a bartender applicant. Our industry has a lousy record of checking backgrounds before hiring. |
| Emotional justification |
If you are not a well-liked or well-respected manager,
you may find that your theft problem is even bigger than you thought.
The bar staff will steal to get back at you. They’ll use "emotional
justification" to rationalize the theft. For example, "I
worked 2 hours extra the day before and covered a shift last week
on my day off and he never said thank you." |
| No knowledge |
If owners and managers have little or no knowledge
of bartending, some bartenders will find it difficult to respond
to their direction. You might be telling them what to do, and
you might be their boss, but you don't know what you're talking
about - or you can't explain it very well - because you lack the
necessary experience and knowledge. When bartenders become aware
that they are smarter at what they do than their managers and
owners, they now have more control of the business. This is not
a good position to be in. If the bar is a big part of your business
and you're not up on bartending techniques, perhaps some bartender
training will serve you well. |
|
Review order |
