Are you a bar owner or manager who is looking to save up on liquor costs? One effective way to do this is by doing regular inventories and closely monitoring your liquor orders preferably with help of a hand-held inventory system like Bevchek.
- Determine what you need to order yourself instead of relying on your bartender or other staff member. If you are not the one who places your orders, make sure that you have the same person order for liquor every week. This helps the said person build trust with your sales representative and increase his or her knowledge about your transactions.
- Know which are your strongest selling liquor products and stick to them. It helps to develop your bar or restaurant as a brand or a personality. Different bars and establishments attract different types of crowds. Know your market well and their liquor preferences. Get rid of liquor products that will not affect your sales if they are either included or excluded on your menu, even if they are offered to you on sale. This process makes your life as a bar owner or restaurant manager much simpler.
- Develop an efficient liquor inventory control system to monitor you liquor usage every week. Keep an eye out for various trends. Exercise control over your inventories by ordering enough supply to last your establishment for a week. You might be tempted to stock up in case of rainy days, perhaps, but this is not a good idea in the long run because oversupply complicates the process of monitoring your inventories.
- A “just in time” bar inventory control is highly recommended, especially for the busiest bars. This means placing an order to last you a week so that when a new order comes in, the supply from the last order is only being consumed to the last drop. In case you see the need to order more due to unforeseen circumstances like a sudden price break or to offset the price of a broken case, make sure it would account for a normal one-month cycle first.
- Take the season and local events into consideration. Most alcoholic drinkers drink for merrymaking and bonding with friends so naturally, a major feast or event in your locality will spike the demand for alcoholic drinks. This may prompt you to place larger orders.
- Always communicate with your sales representative to get information on pricing trends. These people will be more than willing to share news about upcoming price increases, discounts, and industrial trends that could affect your transactions. Most likely, you could also get a scoop on quantity and quality issues.
- Use product codes in placing your orders and ensure that perishable goods are being taken care of properly. It would be a good idea to make a day-to-day tracking of perishables. Hand-held inventory systems like Bevchek helps you in this task by generating pre-set pars. Orders could be saved and assigned PO numbers. They could also be modified to comply with discounts or larger orders.