It’s no secret that the US is dealing with a huge labor shortage. According to American Progress, as of September 2021 there were 10.7 million job vacancies. This shortage of labor has caused turmoil in the US, but hitting the bar and restaurant industry the hardest. In an industry with an already small margin for success, the odds have become even smaller for a new independent restaurant to succeed. With all of these factors hitting bottom lines and operations, owners need a way to keep their business afloat and make their own employees’ lives easier. The simple answer? Tech and automation.
There are plenty of ways technology and automation can help a bar and/or restaurant thrive. An extremely common answer that has really come about since the pandemic is QR code menus and paying. At many restaurants in this modern age, customers are greeted with QR codes either as they walk in, or at the table they are seated at. This not only helps with the spread of covid, but makes the customer experience much easier. These QR codes can flip tables quicker by way of not having to rely on staff to get to everyone in a timely manner, reduce costs, and provide management with useful information and data to see what customers are ordering.
The most common seen since the pandemic is ordering kiosks. They had become somewhat regular pre-pandemic, but they have become a mainstay in many restaurants now. Self-serving touch screen POS systems make ordering easy, and saves employees time. More orders can be placed in a quicker manner, and leads to more revenue generated. Staff can now focus on keeping up to health and cleanliness standards, and ensuring the customer experience is consistent and positive.
The back of house needs a different level of attention though. They typically won’t have much customer interaction, but still need some tech to ease their job through a labor shortage. Gone are the days of paper ordering tickets though, and in are kitchen order screens. Kitchens are a hectic place, and losing a paper ticket is a stress that the busy chefs don’t need (not to mention it doesn’t kill trees). Kitchen ordering can be a stresser, but most chefs will have enough experience to handle those situations. There’s one aspect of the job of both the front and back of house that can be really time consuming and inaccurate though. Inventory.
In a hectic bar environment, staff can’t afford to waste time counting bottles
Inventory is a hassle no matter what is being counted, but liquor inventory in particular is a pain point for many owners and operators. There are tons of possibilities for error, and inaccuracies can cost the business much more than need be. Not only this, but inventory is incredibly time consuming. Your staff is looking at taking about an hour of their day to count bottles, and any interruptions due to their presence being needed on the floor can result in starting over completely, or losing their place and continuing on anyways just to complete the task. With a smaller staff due to labor shortages, this can become a real problem quickly. And if the management or owner wants to do it, they need to physically be in the building. With the incredibly busy schedules of owners and managers, this is also a thorn in their side. It shouldn’t be this difficult to do, and trustworthy tech can solve these woes.
The BarMinder system is here to change all of the above. Liquor inventory should be easy, in real time, increase profits, and be able to be accessed anytime from anywhere. The BarMinder system does just that. By reducing shrinkage levels and eliminating the labor involved with inventory, staff can focus on the things that matter. Combining revolutionary free-pour like digital pour spouts that can track exactly how much has left each bottle, with real time counts of every bottle in storage, BarMinder allows staff to never deal with liquor inventory woes and make the business money. Just apply a BarMinder tag to the neck of each bottle when the shipment comes in and pair it with the on-site hub, and you’re done. No incorrect counts, no more unnecessary time spent tirelessly counting bottles in the back room, and no more wasted money.
