BARTENDER THEFT:
Bartender Summary
· Bartender 1: Caucasian female, 5’9’’, medium build, blonde ponytail past the shoulders, black sleeveless shirt, pictured at right.
· Bartender 2: Caucasian female, 5’9’’, medium build, brown wavy ponytail, black short-sleeved collared shirt, pictured at left
· Bartender 3:Caucasian male, 6’2”, average build, short light brown hair, black work shirt, pictured at right
· Bartender 4:Caucasian male, 6’0”, medium build, medium-length brown hair and beard, black work shirt, pictured at right
· Bartender 5:Latino male, 5’9”, medium build, spiked-up dark hair, black short-sleeve tee shirt and slacks, pictured at right
After arriving at the bar at 6:22, the agent was acknowledged right away by Bartender 1. She greeted the agent, who had sat in front of a bar menu and was ready to order. Two minutes later, she had returned with the drink order, which she placed on a coaster, but the bartender never rang it into the POS until much later.
Coasters were observed in use throughout the agent’s visit. Additionally, no bartender was ever observed to retrieve ice other than with the scoop. Also, Bartenders 1 and 3 consistently poured a standard 4-count.
One pouring irregularity was observed at 7:13 though, when Bartender 1 was making a Singapore Sling and realized that there were just a few ounces left in the cherry brandy bottle after the recipe was made, and added an additional 4-count of it to finish out the bottle. Another observation of concern was that
Bartender 1 rang most drinks in well after making them, which has been known to increase the chance of forgetting to ring in a sale if one suddenly becomes busy.
Betraying a lack of thorough grounding in the mechanics of bartending, all three bartenders regularly fell short of ideal sales practices. For example, none of the bartenders were ever seen to offer bar guests a menu for food. This was even as every member of the bar staff was eating potato chips in the area in and around the service well, and hence were both unoccupied, and eating in front of guests without offering them food.
Similarly, when bartenders were asked for a mixed drink, they did not actively upsell to higher brands of spirit. Also, while the bar was never busy at all, the bartenders were not offering new drinks to guests, In fact, after greeting and getting a drink for the guests as they first arrived, they often simply did not try to keep an eye on the levels of guests’ drinks, nor even make eye contact. Instead, they just waited for guests to specifically request a drink before interacting with them. Before the agent left for a table, the bar staff allowed the agent and associate’s glasses to sit empty for eight minutes before offering another.
More troublingly still, when the associate first entered, no bartender acknowledged the associate for a full twenty minutes. Not so much as eye contact, never mind a drink offer. Even after twenty minutes, the agent still had to specifically request a drink for the agent. In the mean time, there were fewer than two guests for each bartender. The only reason that they weren’t available was that they were chatting among themselves, clustering in the service well where they shared bags of chips and talked to their off duty co-workers, and near the center POS.
Similarly, None of the bartenders were ever heard to offer dessert or after-dinner drinks to any guest. This was in spite of the fact that they often had nothing to do. The agent would suggest countering this through a program of systematically encouraging salesmanship. It should not be difficult to make bartenders see the correlation between check average and tip totals, and if it proves difficult, one could easily remind them of how many more engaging bartenders would love to have their jobs.
The agent had some reason to question the bartenders’ integrity as well. There was suspicious cash-handling at 6:45, when Bartender 3 began to clock out, making change from the tip jar, and taking a cut which he alone counted out.
Otherwise, all tabs and cash orders seemed to be handled appropriately, although it is worth noting that bartenders only ever presented itemized checks at the time that someone was paying. Even then, there was no guarantee. For example, when the agent closed out using a credit Card, Bartender 1 did not offer an itemized receipt, only the credit card slips. In fact, the agent had no way of knowing how accurate the total presented really was, or if it was really the agent’s check at all.
There were drinks given to bartenders who were off the clock that the agent never saw rung in. In the cases of Bartenders 2 and 3, it’s possible that these were shift drinks, though they each had multiple drinks that were not seen to be rung in, and the bartenders were never seen to pay. If they were shift drinks, the agent would suggest a system of implementing a ring in and comp system for keeping track of shift drinks. in addition to Bartenders 2 and 3, two other off-duty bartenders were present when the agent arrived (pictured at left) They each had drinks in front of them when the agent arrived, but the agent never observed them being entered into the POS or paid for.
Bartender 1 was also the only staff member ever seen to request ID of any guest, including a couple who were clearly under thirty and were drinking. The one guest she requested ID of looked very young though. Even so, there was never any sign of any guest that had been over served.
While all three bartenders were efficient and businesslike when they bothered to serve guests, they did not make any effort to interact socially with guests either. Again, this was in spite of their never having been busy, but when they had moments of downtime, they did not try to take stock of guests or interact with them substantially. Instead, they constantly talked and ate among themselves.
The combination of minimal business and their tendency to talk among themselves when not actively engaged by a guest meant that the bar staff were not especially available to their customers.
Additionally, there was regular indication of a lack of professionalism on the part of the bartenders. In addition to every one of them eating with their hands while on duty and then never having washed their hands, Bartender 1 was seen drinking a cola-colored liquid from a pint glass immediately behind the bar at 6:54, was using her phone at 6:51 and 6:57, and flipping off Bartender 3.
When asked for a beer recommendation of an IPA, Bartender 2 said “honestly, this is my first day. I have no idea. Here’s a menu.” She then walked away without asking a coworker for help or pointing out the provided RateBeer ratings on the menu.
Michael Zenner – CEO
Hospitality Checkpoint LLC
bartheft.com (blog)
PO BOX 995 Gilbert AZ 85299
Office: 480-777-1919
Toll Free: 800-880-0811
© Hospitality Checkpoint LLC 2014