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Wow, I've never been to a place that required an ID in addition to the credit card to start a tab. Is that a college bar thing? On another note, every so often you see places that just run the card and give it back to you after the first order. I'm not sure what they are doing differently that lets them do that... it seems much easier if it's a big bar with several registers where the physical card might be in a few places and hard to find.
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Feb 24, 2014 15:17
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Give me the coordinates to Trustville please. Actually even in NYC it's less common to have someone hold your ID with your card than it is to just pass the card over. What extra measures you take really depends on your clientele and how much ownership is galled by having to eat a bill now and then. As for swiping a card and giving it back many (all?) POS systems will hold the card number plus a preauth if you want until you close the tab out. The only reason to keep the card really is to encourage people to come back and sign their bill at the end of the night. raton fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Feb 24, 2014 15:31
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smackfu posted:Wow, I've never been to a place that required an ID in addition to the credit card to start a tab. Is that a college bar thing? It's more of a dive bar thing; I've seen it a number of places in Atlanta and New Orleans. It does significantly up the chances the customer will remember to settle up that night, or at least the next day.
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Feb 24, 2014 17:38
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Perdido posted:Most of Canada granted special exceptions as far as I know...although most of them had it sorted out before 2:45 on a loving Friday. What I'm saying is gently caress Allison Redford and the AGLC, as I've heard a ton of horror stories from places because trying to drum up staff to work on such short notice at an incredibly off hour is pretty hard. Service was pretty bad because most bars had skeleton staff working...place I was at only had 2 people in their kitchen, while another place had multiple food orders go missing because of server or kitchen fuckups. Had bars been given the opportunity to prepare a bit, things would've been a lot smoother and people would've had far better service. Well, I suppose it's good that Alison Redford did it at all, but I agree she could've given some more notice. I ended up seeing a lot of bars open, and the ones that were open were pretty full. I read in the news this morning that there were very few "problems" and, as a result, the provincial government is looking at extending service hours in general and allowing sales in corner stores and grocery stores. It's about time!
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Feb 24, 2014 18:29
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Stunning Honky fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Feb 11, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2014 21:10
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mooyashi posted:No college kid carries cash unless they work in the service industry. I've just gotten over it at this point. Every once in a while, and it is rare, you get someone telling you your five dollar minimum is "illegal." I put on my nicest smile and tell them it's against Visa policy, and they are free to call them to complain. Most people just buy another drink to round it out. If you've been super nice, I'll run the card for the requisite five and give you the difference in cash, with a friendly reminder to just keep it in mind next time you come back. Jesus, I think to get under a $5 tab at my local (or any bar in this city), you'd have to order a special and tip nothing at all. Unless you're just drinking pop, in which case you're either a DD and most bars will serve you pop for free, or a cheap rear end in a top hat who shouldn't be in a bar anyway.
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Feb 24, 2014 22:18
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PT6A posted:or a cheap rear end in a top hat who shouldn't be in a bar anyway. Ding ding. At least in this role you have a little more leeway to bring this to their attention than others. Although, our cheapest beer is a bottle for $1.75, which usually means I get a quarter. Still over 15% though. I'm certain after the time I've put in that I've paid a month's rent on quarters at least once. I'm pretty zen about people stiffing me on small ball poo poo. You let it get to you and you wind up being the cranky dude who should have gotten out years ago. Now if I catch your rear end leaving me two dollars on eighty two, you better believe I'll whistle for the bar's attention and ask everyone to applaud for your generosity. Heh, I'll never forget watching that guy's face trying to melt off of his skull.
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Feb 25, 2014 01:07
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PT6A posted:the provincial government is looking at extending service hours in general and allowing sales in corner stores and grocery stores. It's about time! I'll believe it when I see it. The AGLC and Alberta in general have ridiculously quaint ideas regarding liquor service and I can't see them suddenly doing an about face because of the gold medal game...but stranger things have happened, I guess.
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Feb 25, 2014 01:31
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Dirnok posted:How exactly does that work? (You're right about us using the bangers along side the machines from the processor and I understand this will probably vary depending on machine and software.) These machines must keep a log, so you just match up the card info on the machine with the merchant copy receipt, and adjust the original transaction to whatever it should be after adding on the tip? And just do that for each one? That's kinda how I assumed it worked, and if so, seems like it would make for a lot more time at the end of the night being as high volume as we are. But if it could be done here and there during lulls maybe not so much? This is likely going to be my biggest hurdle with the GM as he's convinced taking cards will mean he or I will be there for at least another hour every night doing this. The CC slip will have a transaction number on it. You'll punch a button (or a couple buttons) to get to a screen requesting said transaction number, from there you enter either the tip or the total and the machine adjusts the charge accordingly. Which one you enter depends on he machine or how it's set up. It really doesn't take very long - once you get used to it, you can do 2-3 tabs per minute if tip/total has been entered. Walked tabs take a bit longer if you have to do oddball math (say, your tip out is 18%). If you have multiple machines, you should be able to have multiple bartenders entering tips without a problem. Even on nights with a few hundred tabs to enter, it rarely took us more than 20-30 minutes to take care of everything. Sheep-Goats posted:I see a lot of businesses using tablets with an attached card reader to do their credit cards today too. Don't know why. Maybe the it's easier or cheaper or both. They're using those for a few reasons, but the two biggest are ease of use and cost. The cost on those is MUCH cheaper since now it's just an Ipad with a Square reader along with the software, compared to a Micros, Aloha, or Focus terminal with its proprietary hardware (can be a few grand a pop) and the fact that you typically have to pay them to install (and possibly even train your staff) the things. Ease of use is great because it lets customers view their itemized bill without having to print it out every time (or forcing them to ask for it), it gives customers the option to have their receipt e-mailed instead of printed, and for the bartenders, auto grat speed buttons can be added at checkout and set to anything the bar wants. One bar by me has three buttons set at 20%, 25%, and 30%, though you can obviously add whatever you want. It also drives down dry goods cost as it vastly reduces the amount of printer paper you need, and all but eliminates pens. Better yet, they don't have the issues all of the old legacy POS systems had that haven't been updated or even documented in years, and are an absolutely motherfucker to use. But they (can) offer all the same benefits - scheduling (with e-mailed schedules), inventory, cost analysis, order sheets, of course you can tie them in to a kitchen as well. It's a really neat improvement, I've played with a couple of them.
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Feb 25, 2014 01:49
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Don't forget that you typically lease the software, which typically breaks, which they then often charge you when they fix it. gently caress point of sale systems. Pen and paper for life.
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Feb 25, 2014 02:10
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PT6A posted:Jesus, I think to get under a $5 tab at my local (or any bar in this city), you'd have to order a special and tip nothing at all. Unless you're just drinking pop, in which case you're either a DD and most bars will serve you pop for free, or a cheap rear end in a top hat who shouldn't be in a bar anyway. I live in NYC now and when I got visit my folks in Montana I feel like I have a hearing impairment in the bars. "$1.25? This is a beer, right? A double vodka soda is 2.25? Are you sure?" Makes for a totally different drinking culture there. You buy lots of drinks, including for people you don't even know, and obviously don't need to budget when a cab home would likely be more than the night's drinks (but everybody just drives home drunk anyway). E: Oh hey you're straight north of there raton fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Feb 25, 2014 |
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Feb 25, 2014 02:45
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Sheep-Goats posted:E: Oh hey you're straight north of there Yep, but our governments have wildly different opinions on how to restrict things like liquor and tobacco. I think the Mormons were big in this part of Canada for a while. We should work on purging them and their ilk from our governments at all levels.
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Feb 25, 2014 02:55
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PT6A posted:Yep, but our governments have wildly different opinions on how to restrict things like liquor and tobacco. I think the Mormons were big in this part of Canada for a while. We should work on purging them and their ilk from our governments at all levels. I'm used to you folks driving down and buying a lot of guns politely and then driving back home.
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Feb 25, 2014 02:56
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mooyashi posted:Don't forget that you typically lease the software, which typically breaks, which they then often charge you when they fix it. gently caress point of sale systems. Pen and paper for life. You don't lease the software, you license, and typically that license includes a certain number of hours of troubleshooting when it breaks. Again, it all comes down to the individual system - CRS Texas was absolutely a beast, and would break in the stupidest ways. Example: One of 4 or 5 kitchen printers we used had a paper jam one time. Rather than reroute the prints to another station in the kitchen, or give an error to the POS terminals, instead it routed every single kitchen ticket to the service bar printer. The back office stuff was a complete nightmare as well. Focus, on the other hand, I absolutely loved. It was intuitive, I can only remember ever having one software problem that wasn't user error (whole system rebooted for an undetermined reason), but it came back up relatively quickly. Unfortunately it happened while we were in the weeds, but we managed. Would love to try the touchscreen POS systems, though I dont want to bartend again.
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Feb 25, 2014 05:33
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I worked 2 barback shifts over the weekend and cleared $400 in tips.  
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Feb 25, 2014 20:46
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DEAR RICHARD posted:I worked 2 barback shifts over the weekend and cleared $400 in tips. There isn't exactly many bar backing jobs around where I live, but I bartend now. And I still have yet to beat my best night as a barback (over $500 on New Year's).
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Feb 25, 2014 20:52
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Really good barbacks often make as much or more than bartenders - they have to absolutely haul rear end to do it, but 2-3 great barbacks can do the same job as 5-6 mediocre ones.
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Feb 25, 2014 22:01
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Shooting Blanks posted:Really good barbacks often make as much or more than bartenders - they have to absolutely haul rear end to do it, but 2-3 great barbacks can do the same job as 5-6 mediocre ones. And while it may not be fully industry policy, myself and a few of my friends are big believers in increasing a barback's tip out. Sheet says 15% but you bust your rear end as hard or harder than I do every night, and I don't have empty syrups ever? That goes up to 25%. You serving guests while I'm weeded with cocktails? We can talk thirty.
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Feb 25, 2014 22:46
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I was hired as a barback, and my absolute best night tending bar was my first night actually serving. Our coworker had rented the place out for her 60th birthday (she's old and grizzled and is absolutely the mortar in the bricks at this place), blacked out the windows, only allowed in her friends and ours, and made it open bar all night. I got a phone call earlier that day to tell me I'd be bartending that night. Sweet. She had put 2 signs up in huge text on the back of the bar: "NO STUPID DRINKS." "TIPPING IS COMPULSORY, ASSHOLES." The bar was treated as a private club that night as well, so smoking was allowed. Ripping cigs openly while pouring whiskey on the rocks or cracking bottled beers and bullshitting with cool old farts was the order of the night. I cleared just south of five bills in 3 hours, and learned a lot about how polite most people of older generations actually are when it comes to drinking culture. The money was awesome, but I think the experience ruined bartending for me, as no shift could top that one.
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Feb 26, 2014 20:54
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I started as a barback, was moved to bartender after 3 months, then after another 2-3 months the GM was fired, a new GM was pulled in and I and another bartender were moved up to bar manager (the new GM was basically back office only, had no experience running bars but worked for the owners). My single best shift was actually a fundraiser. One of the other bartenders had been in a scooter accident and suffered some permanent nerve damage in his left arm, significantly limiting mobility in it. We brought in our Thursday night band to play a Sunday night show, advertised the hell out of it for a few weeks to all of our regulars, did catered food, art show, etc., with all profits going towards his medical care. We did something like 50% higher than our previous best night in terms of bar sales - I think it was something like $19k at the bar, plus another 8 or 9 at the door. Tips were insane - we normally averaged 22-23%, but since all the customers knew it was going to a long time bartender (who they all knew), they were tipping much heavier than usual. I almost wish we would have counted them, curious how much we would have made that night, but it all went to his care as well. I enjoyed working cocktail bars, but I absolutely loved the mad rush of stupid high volume. I think I rang $4k that night by myself in 6 hours of operation of which only 4 were actually busy. Tons of fun.
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Feb 26, 2014 21:52
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Welp, my owner showed up yesterday at 3pm, still up from the night before and blurted some stuff out he probably shouldn't about my manager leaving in a couple of months and then he pretty much offered me the job. I've turned down a fair share of management jobs to just be carefree bartender guy with little responsibility (who actually makes more money) but I think this might be the one to finally grow up and take on as a solid career move. The worst part is going to be losing my current manager. The guy is the best bartender I've ever worked with and it's going to suck rear end not having him around to bounce ideas off.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:00
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nrr posted:Welp, my owner showed up yesterday at 3pm, still up from the night before and blurted some stuff out he probably shouldn't about my manager leaving in a couple of months and then he pretty much offered me the job. I've turned down a fair share of management jobs to just be carefree bartender guy with little responsibility (who actually makes more money) but I think this might be the one to finally grow up and take on as a solid career move. The Sirens... they call to me... Are you only considering the move to prevent other, potentially less desirable candidates from becoming your manager? Or is it at all a factor in your decision? Cause we all know that manager thing is a pretty tough and thankless move "up" the ladder.
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Mar 4, 2014 19:38
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FaceEater posted:The Sirens... they call to me... Yeah, this is a little different though. Yes, part of taking the job would be so that I don't have to roll the dice on getting lumped with some other chump being given the reins, but there's a lot more pressing reasons that take precedence before that comes up. The top one is probably that this is the step that takes me from just loving around to actually turning this whole thing into an actual, legit career. Having control over one of the best cocktail bars I've worked in (or even come across) would be really, really satisfying and incredibly rewarding on a personal level. Another reason that I can't ignore is that he told me the position involves profit sharing. I have no idea what kind of slice of the pie I'd be looking at, but to give you an idea of the ballpark I'm playing in, we're Dom Perignon's #1 account in Canada. This isn't the same old, hey do you want to get a lovely title and make an extra $3-5/hr for and give up your tips for more headaches? This is a little more like, hey do you want to take that next step into something serious, maaaybe double what you're making, and pretty much give up your life for the privilege of taking on some super, big league headaches. I'm going to go for it. I'd be an idiot not to. It's just all a little daunting, I guess.
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Mar 4, 2014 21:39
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To card talk: for a tab over $300 we require a fingerprint and copy of ID, for tabs of $2K we require a video statement.
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Mar 5, 2014 08:53
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Masonity posted:Yeah. Can't beat the good old "Not so much ice, I don't want my drink watered down!" I have sometimes asked for less ice and I feel no shame in wanting room for more mixer. When I order a gin & tonic, I hope to receive a gin & tonic, not gin on ice with a couple drops of tonic. Old Man Pants posted:To card talk: for a tab over $300 we require a fingerprint and copy of ID, for tabs of $2K we require a video statement. I was about to scoff and then remembered where you work(ed?). Have you ever had to play a video statement to the CC company? What about having one subpoenaed to prove that someone was at a place during a time?
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Mar 5, 2014 17:05
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Shooting Blanks posted:Would love to try the touchscreen POS systems, though I dont want to bartend again. No you wouldn't. Try being four deep and having the computer freeze up on you, it's loving awesome! Also gently caress CC sales, I wish our bar would go to cash only.
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Mar 5, 2014 17:30
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leica posted:No you wouldn't. Try being four deep and having the computer freeze up on you, it's loving awesome! Holy poo poo. I can't believe you aren't. In that little shoebox of a joint?! Put an ATM smack dab in front of your bar and never have to chase down a stupid tiny rear end credit card signature slip that blew away again. nrr posted:I'm going to go for it. I'd be an idiot not to. It's just all a little daunting, I guess. Go for it dude. You know you can walk into anywhere and sling drinks again if it isn't awesome, but it sounds pretty fuckin' groovy. Congrats.
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Mar 5, 2014 20:27
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My new favourite bar is the brewery which gets around the VA law against bars that don't sell food, because it is a brewery that just happens to wholesale alcohol in pint-size portions. It has one of those tablet swipe-card things so I can just press the "Add a tip? 20%" button after three or four pints. There is also a guy with a meat-pie stand.
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Mar 5, 2014 20:48
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FaceEater posted:Holy poo poo. I can't believe you aren't. In that little shoebox of a joint?! Put an ATM smack dab in front of your bar and never have to chase down a stupid tiny rear end credit card signature slip that blew away again. That's what I keep saying, but the owner doesn't ever want to inconvenience the guests so it would probably never happen. Make the guests use an ATM? That's shameful 
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Mar 6, 2014 04:59
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leica posted:That's what I keep saying, but the owner doesn't ever want to inconvenience the guests so it would probably never happen. Make the guests use an ATM? That's shameful "Might as well stand for rear end to mouth," quote from owner at my previous gig. He then laughed, because he had an ATM.
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Mar 6, 2014 05:16
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ATMs are your friends. They stop people from leaving your bar, looking for one if they're out of cash and you make money from the fees you charge people for the privilege of using it! It's a loving no brainer. Still accept credit cards, but after a little bit of a transitional period add a minimum for CC transactions of around $40-50. You'll save a bunch of time on a million pissy < $10 CC transactions so you'll be free to sell more booze, and you'll make money off the ATM fees to boot. Hell, if your bar is kinda big, look into putting two of them in there.
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Mar 6, 2014 06:12
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Frozen Horse posted:I was about to scoff and then remembered where you work(ed?). Have you ever had to play a video statement to the CC company? What about having one subpoenaed to prove that someone was at a place during a time? Unsurprisingly, some peoples spouses are not ok with a 4-5 figure purchase that they were not consulted on, and when they find out what is was for get very confrontational, so instead of owning up, they act confused and say I'm going to call the credit card company right now! The same goes for some peoples business accounts and their bosses. Happens all the time, and when the CC company comes to us we shut them down quick. "We have his fingerprint, a copy of his ID, and him on video agreeing to these purchases", and they stop bothering us about it.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:48
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nrr posted:ATMs are your friends. They stop people from leaving your bar.. That's no longer true for us and it's why I'm pushing so hard to get away from cash only. At one point a few Saturdays ago there were over a dozen drinks sitting near the wells or on the back bar. People would order, drinks got made, they'd hand us a card, we'd say "Sorry, we're cash only but there is an ATM right over there.." and they'd just leave. That's both sales lost and product wasted. And that's just what we're seeing inside the bar, who knows how much potential business we're losing because people just drink elsewhere because we're cash only. Two years ago I'd have agreed with you completely because nobody batted an eye about walking over to the ATM. Now though, in my market at least, cash only is hurting us ATM or not.
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Mar 7, 2014 10:08
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There are places you can still get away with it in Brooklyn, but having a POS is so much fun because it will calculate and collect your sales tax, so you just earmark a portion of each weeks profits as dictated by the readout, and bam; pay quarterly. Then again, most of us aren't owners or managers, so the major experience is dealing with it when it goes down on a busy Friday night, which sucks. Totally in hand if you put procedures in place (swipe card to name table/pre-authorize a charge, print copies with every round to have on hand if they wish to close when the POS is down, hand swipe CC tabs, etc). Cash only will be dead in a generation or less, already I see kids who are 21, 22, not carrying cash on a Saturday night.
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Mar 7, 2014 17:57
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Vegetable Melange posted:Cash only will be dead in a generation or less, already I see kids who are 21, 22, not carrying cash on a Saturday night. Once the US leaves the stone age and gets chip cards so you don't have to sign all the goddamn time, it will go even quicker.
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Mar 7, 2014 18:25
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I consider people walking around without a good day's cash in their pocket to be subhuman but if I ran a bar there's no way I wouldn't have credit cards up and running. How the gently caress else are you going to Gordon Gecko some poor bar schlub?
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Mar 7, 2014 18:26
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Vegetable Melange posted:There are places you can still get away with it in Brooklyn, but having a POS is so much fun because it will calculate and collect your sales tax, so you just earmark a portion of each weeks profits as dictated by the readout, and bam; pay quarterly. Then again, most of us aren't owners or managers, so the major experience is dealing with it when it goes down on a busy Friday night, which sucks. Totally in hand if you put procedures in place (swipe card to name table/pre-authorize a charge, print copies with every round to have on hand if they wish to close when the POS is down, hand swipe CC tabs, etc). A decent POS that's been set up correctly isn't a headache to a manager/owner, it's an asset. One that's set up poorly, or one that's just a lovely legacy POS is more trouble than it's worth.
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Mar 7, 2014 19:59
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That's the problem with our POS, the owner REFUSES to have the right people come and set it up, and instead relies on his managers to learn on the fly how to do it. We just had a new restaurant open and putting them on the POS has been a colossal cluster gently caress. Honestly if the POS we had was properly set up I wouldn't care about CC sales, but if the owner doesn't give a gently caress about it I'd rather do cash only sales just to save my loving sanity.
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Mar 8, 2014 03:03
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I just got a bottle of George Dickel White Corn whiskey from the distributor. That poo poo is awesome and I'm ordering us a couple of bottles so I can drink it myself. Try it.
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Mar 10, 2014 10:22
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Dirnok posted:That's no longer true for us and it's why I'm pushing so hard to get away from cash only. At one point a few Saturdays ago there were over a dozen drinks sitting near the wells or on the back bar. People would order, drinks got made, they'd hand us a card, we'd say "Sorry, we're cash only but there is an ATM right over there.." and they'd just leave. That's both sales lost and product wasted. And that's just what we're seeing inside the bar, who knows how much potential business we're losing because people just drink elsewhere because we're cash only. Two years ago I'd have agreed with you completely because nobody batted an eye about walking over to the ATM. Now though, in my market at least, cash only is hurting us ATM or not. I'm not a bartender, but I hate to say it, I am one of those that will leave the bar if I find out it's cash only. If there's a prominent sign saying "Cash only!!!!!", then I'll leave before ordering a drink and screwing over the bartender. But on the occasion that the place is not smart enough to drape a sign letting people know the bar is cash only, I have been that guy that orders drinks, whips out the debit card and then leaves the bar when the bartender says it's cash only. Some places have tried to point me towards the ATM, but I won't use it. A) I'm not paying $3 - $5 to get access to my own money. A $1 fee or something? Sure, I'll hit the in-bar ATM. But when the cost of using the ATM almost costs as much as a drink at the bar itself, I'm not going to bother. B) There are far too many bars in my area that do take credit to put up with this. Even worse for these cash only places, I'll only get caught out once by cash only. After I run into a cash only problem at a bar, I'll never return to that bar. I hate carrying bills and coins with me. Even if the place was worth it, my weekend going out plans are far too spontaneous to remember to withdraw cash. And again, when you have so many great drinking holes to choose from, I don't see the need to put up with a stone-age era cash only bar.
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Mar 10, 2014 17:46
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