From alcohol sales to bar safety and management, Alcohol Controls offers informed and experienced systems sure to benefit adult nightclubs.
(NOTE: This story appears in the March 2024 issue of ED Magazine.)
T
he number one mistake bartenders are making that’s costing the business big is over-pouring, which can cost clubs and bar owners both in wholesale and in retail loss. But according to Bridgette Hanisch, manager with industry vendor Alcohol Controls, many in the bar business still underestimate the importance of a controlled pour.
“If you have multiple bartenders over-pouring, they might not think of it as a lot,” says Hanisch. “But if you’re doing that, say, 100 times a day, 1,000 times a week, that’s bottles of profit out of the owner’s pocket.”
Alcohol Controls has been in the bar business for 30 years. Having expanded now into a number of other offerings to save bars money, the company is to this day best-known for its signature product line: portion control spouts for liquor bottles.
“Today, on average, Alcohol Control products could save clubs serving liquor $10,000/month, depending on traffic, or more, depending on volume,” says Tom Barker, another manager with Alcohol Controls. “Over the course of a year, that’s over $100,000 just on alcohol purchases. If you’re in Vegas, however, and you have non-stop traffic, it could be substantially higher.”
Alcohol Controls has a mission to educate and train bars and clubs on the realities of over-pouring. Most importantly, for 2024, the bar loss prevention company is focusing on informing about safe bartending. The savings of controlling pours are not just profits; controlled pours can also save lives.
“Whether it’s monitoring yourself or monitoring your inventory, the responsibility is something that we feel very strongly about,” says Barker. “I don’t want to say which state, but we are in contact with a state representative who reached out to us, because, in their state, they were over-pouring so much that it was causing DUIs and drunk driving accidents. Bartenders and customers alike were so unaware of how much they were consuming, it was actually fatal.”
As a part of their efforts in education and safety, Alcohol Controls is now offering spiked drink testing strips, called “Check Your Drink,” which determine if illegal drugs have been added. These strips are coming just in time for California clubs — in compliance with a recent law now requiring nightclubs and bars to make drink testing kits for date-rape drugs commonly found in drinks available for patrons, effective July 2024 — as well as bars and nightclubs across the country who are concerned about the safety and longevity of their customer base. Barker adds that the testing strips may also be useful for insurance purposes, should a regrettable issue ever occur and be linked to your establishment.
Alcohol Controls is a small, family-oriented business, operated by people like Hanisch, Barker and Danyrine White, Marketing Manager, who started as an intern, but after years of hard work with Alcohol Controls has moved up based on his contributions to the business. Passionate about educating and caring for their customers, and their customers’ customers, is how Alcohol controls keeps business healthy for all involved.
“Especially during the pandemic, we used to get phone call after phone call from bar owners about to close their doors, crying and asking us for help,” shares Barker. “We really took our time to help save many family businesses. Now, club and bar owners coming back from having been shut down want to know how they can keep from ever being in that position again. We really believe that our products are the first step.”
Alcohol Controls is so passionate about the importance of their products that they offer year-round additional savings opportunities, such as seasonal promotions and coupons. They also offer volume deals and are always willing to negotiate to make their products more available.
Alcohol Controls has taken into account decades of customer feedback to provide products which save clubs and bars money. In addition to liquor control spouts, they offer spouts for beer and wine, as well as pre-programmed tracking systems to save bars on a lot more than the pour. Additionally, product lines such as inventory controls and insect controls promote efficient management of any establishment’s bar.
For more information, call 630-486-1880, email Profit@AlcoholControls.com or visit Alcoholcontrols.com.
