How'd you handle the issue of employee theft? I'm a heavy drinker, friendly, and I tip well, so generally at the end of the night my tab comes out to 50% or less of what it should be.
As a consumer I've seen this handled differently at many places, so I'm wondering what worked for you. I've had bartenders who I knew were just not ringing up my drinks, bartenders who had me on the comp list, bartenders who'd mix up a jug of free shots at the beginning of the night, bartenders who'd ring my drunks as staff/girlfriend drinks, etc etc. One of my current bars has a friend-of-the-bar/in-the-biz program, and I get a percentage off of all my drinks. As a consumer, it's the method I prefer the most, because even when I show up on the wrong night or one of my regular bartenders has the day off, I still get some sort of discount at the end of the night, even if my tab isn't missing the beer or two it usually is.
I'm asking because I realize two things: 1) even though I always bring people in with me who wouldn't have gone to that particular bar without me, the bar is definitely losing potential profit on me individually. My stool could be taken up by some guy off the street who's paying full price for everything. 2) I tend to follow bartenders like hairdressers. I really don't care where I'm getting my hair cut or where I'm drinking my beer. I care that everyone knows my name, that my first drink is on the bar before I sit down, and that I feel like I'm getting a deal at the end of the night. I have left bars never to return when a favorite bartender got fired or quit.
To prevent this there are surveillance cameras that insert the cash receipt data onto the video. They also save key frames with every transaction so you can later jump directly to them.
As a consumer I've seen this handled differently at many places, so I'm wondering what worked for you. I've had bartenders who I knew were just not ringing up my drinks, bartenders who had me on the comp list, bartenders who'd mix up a jug of free shots at the beginning of the night, bartenders who'd ring my drunks as staff/girlfriend drinks, etc etc. One of my current bars has a friend-of-the-bar/in-the-biz program, and I get a percentage off of all my drinks. As a consumer, it's the method I prefer the most, because even when I show up on the wrong night or one of my regular bartenders has the day off, I still get some sort of discount at the end of the night, even if my tab isn't missing the beer or two it usually is.
I'm asking because I realize two things: 1) even though I always bring people in with me who wouldn't have gone to that particular bar without me, the bar is definitely losing potential profit on me individually. My stool could be taken up by some guy off the street who's paying full price for everything. 2) I tend to follow bartenders like hairdressers. I really don't care where I'm getting my hair cut or where I'm drinking my beer. I care that everyone knows my name, that my first drink is on the bar before I sit down, and that I feel like I'm getting a deal at the end of the night. I have left bars never to return when a favorite bartender got fired or quit.