(Note: This story appears in the November 2021 issue of ED Magazine)
*Story by Bob Johnson
Bob Johnson, a multi-decade nightclub/bar consultant, discusses where the fault lies for bartenders who may be stealing from you.
Do bartenders steal? Not all of them. I’ve worked with some outstanding bartenders; honest, hard-working, team/family oriented, loyal to their employer. I would like to think all bartenders are like that, but the industry “experts” say we’re naïve for believing all bartenders are honest.
Joe Motzi of Entrepreneur Consultants in New York wrote an article for Restaurant Hospitality magazine titled “Your Bartender is Robbing You Blind!” in which he wrote, “The theft is incredible! In the past three years we ran across only one bartender who wasn’t stealing from his employer. That’s out of about 1,000 clients! Only one bartender went by the rules of the house!”
Employee Service Reports in Fort Myers, Florida, a surveillance service to restaurants and lounges since 1950, reports, “We find that over 50% of the bartenders surveyed are not recording sales. That’s a polite term for stealing. After weeding out the undesirable employees, and with continual monthly surveys, the theft problem is almost gone. As new employees are hired, we start all over again, and with a very high ratio of theft!”
An owner/friend of mine in Brighton, Michigan, has fired nine bartenders for stealing — in one year! An owner of the Au Main bar in New York City once filed a $5 million lawsuit against 12 former bartenders and the chief financial officer (inventory control) for “working together (collusion) against the house, not recording drink sales and splitting the money amongst them for the past eight years.”
The temptation for a bartender to steal, and the ease of doing it, is overwhelming! Receiving cash each time you sell a drink creates the temptation to keep the money (is anyone watching?). Maybe the bartender has a drug problem, or an expensive life style, or a costly significant other, or the rent/ car payment is due, or has plans to open up their own bar one day!
The drink sale is simply not recorded, or rung up. The money for the drink goes straight into the cash register drawer by hitting “00” (No Sale) — or they work out of an open drawer. They keep track of how much they are “over” by using some form of an “abacus” system — three match sticks in a nearby empty rocks glass equals $30, or five pennies in the nickel slot in the cash drawer equals $50, or a black sneaker mark on the floor equals $20 (three black marks and they’re up about $60). They take the “approximate over” out of the cash register drawer before turning in their money. Selling a Coke or a cup of coffee or a “virgin” daiquiri (non-alcoholic) increases the temptation for bartenders or servers to take that money, too. Most bars do not inventory non-alcoholic type drinks. Most bars do not require their bartenders/servers to issue a receipt for each sale.
Amazingly, many owners have a mystical, nonchalant attitude about bartender theft. Stories are told, in a cavalier way, about former bartenders who “made so much money off me they now drive a Cadillac and opened up their own bar.”
There’s an old story about a bartender who was required to take a routine polygraph. He knew he was going to be asked the question, “Have you ever stolen from your bar?” So he wrote a check for $6,000 made payable to his bar, placed
it under the cash register drawer, went that afternoon for his test, passed, returned to the bar, took back his check and ripped it to shreds!
Many bartenders who steal don’t consider it stealing. They’re so good at it and they’ve been doing it for so long, it seems second nature to them. They have numerous excuses “at the ready” for any kind of confrontation with a customer or manager. “What’s that, you say? You gave me a $20 and not a $10? Oh, sorry, my mistake. I got you confused with another customer. Here you go!” (And slides a $10 bill back to cover the mistake). But the bartender tried to con the customer out of the $10. They just didn’t get that customer drunk enough! You can bet he’ll do better next time.
Most bartenders who steal do so with a series of different kinds of theft techniques: $3 dollars here, 50 cents there — it adds up! They’re trying to reach $100 or more in “extra” revenue. The process starts when first hired. They look for the areas a manager/owner is lax in. The more experienced the bartender, the better they are at detecting just how much a manager or owner really knows about the business. They run little “spot tests” — what will work and what won’t. Once it’s established what works, once the bartender sees how much the owner or manager really knows about the business, once the operational voids are detected, then it’s full steam ahead!
Another common type of stealing bartender is the overt thief — the one who steals openly, thinking no one, including the customer, realizes what they’re doing. Professional spotters describe this type of bartender theft as “wide open.” These are bartenders who fear no one — customer or owner/manager. They usually never see the owner. The manager hides in the office most of the shift. They assume the customer knows nothing about what they are doing. This is reason enough to use professional surveillance companies, or spotters, routinely. Spotters are people hired to watch for, and report, any act of theft by a bartender, waitress, manager, or any employee working on the premise. They should accentuate the positive in their reporting as well as the negative. Owners should use spotters continually, and the employee should be told at the time of hiring that spotters are used. It’s a good deterrent.
However, there can be problems with spotters. Many spotters don’t understand a bartender’s organization, motion, or actual transactions. Many spotters are “minimum wage plus expenses” employees of a local security company and have never tended a bar before. The best spotter is one who has bartender experience and can detect a discrepancy in another bartender’s work routines — they are best qualified to recognize theft when it occurs. Even when an experienced spotter detects an act of theft, they must be extremely careful in “pointing a finger.” There are many types of transactions that could be taken as “acts of theft” that aren’t.
Four primary conditions for theft
The majority of owners/managers are guilty of allowing theft to exist because of at least one, or possibly all four, of the primary conditions for theft. They are:
1) Opportunity. When bartenders see that little to no effort is being made to control the inventory, i.e., no weekly counting of liquor, beer, wine, no draft beer controls in
place, no documentation for waste and free drinks, allowing bartenders to “Z” their own register, allowing “free pour,” wrong glassware — and more — then you have created the opportunity for the bartenders to do what they want. The fewer the controls, the greater the temptation to steal, and the easier it is to steal. Most owners/managers are fooled by sales. You think everything is just fine when you see big numbers coming in through the register. Little do you know, it’s not the sales — it’s the costs that ultimately determine the amount of profit. Would you rather make 10 cents on the dollar, or 40 cents on the dollar? Without controlling your costs, you’re probably making the 10 cents per dollar.
2) Need/greed. Drugs, gambling, excessive indebtedness, lavish life style, kids needing college tuition, exorbitant vacations, little display of self-discipline and basic values,
few outside interests, constant party-person, etc., creates a need for extra income. When hiring, management must call previous employers, do a background check that includes credit and criminal history, confirm previous jobs and conduct a thorough interview that includes testing before hiring. Do not rely on “gut feeling!”
Management must be aware of negligent hiring. Fact is, you don’t know who is standing in front of you wanting a job. You don’t have a clue how well they are put together, how mentally intact they are, what they’re all about, unless you do some background checking. If you hired someone today without making a background check (at least call a previous employer for a reference!) you’re just plain stupid and you deserve what you get!
“The process starts when first hired. They look for the areas a manager/owner is lax in. The more experienced the bartender, the better they are at detecting just how much a manager or owner really knows about the business. They run little “spot tests” — what will work and what won’t. Once it’s established what works, once the bartender sees how much the owner or manager really knows about the business, once the operational voids are detected, then it’s full steam ahead!” — Bob Johnson
3) Emotional justification. If you are not a well-liked person with a gregarious, fun-loving kind of personality, you’re in the wrong business. If your management style is more Theory X (autocratic, “do it my way or the highway”), bartenders will get back at you by:
a) not promoting the business – they don’t like you!
b) theft — they will steal from you because they have no respect for you. They don’t care about you! “You have it all and I have nothing! You drive a big fancy car, have lots of money in the bank and go on expensive vacations. And you complain about giving me a week off with pay! We do all the work. You do nothing but sit back and rake in the money!”
Bartenders use “emotional justification” to rationalize. For example, “I worked two hours extra the day before and covered a shift for you last week on my day off and you never even said thank you,” so they get back at you by stealing. “You owe me!” is their rationale.
4) No knowledge. If owners and managers have no knowledge, or very little knowledge, of the bartender profession, bartenders find it difficult to respond to their direction. You might be telling them what to do, and you might be their boss, but you probably don’t know what you’re talking about — or you can’t explain it very well — because you lack the necessary bartender experience and knowledge. When bartenders become aware that they are smarter at what they do than their managers and owners, they now have more control of the business. This is not a good position to be in. You can’t be there 24 hours a day to watch them. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe you should attend a vocational bartending school before buying the bar, or before becoming the bar manager? Wouldn’t that be a great idea? Of course it would. It comes down to respect, which emanates from knowledge! You can either demand it, or you can earn it. I prefer the latter.
If you’re already in violation of the first three conditions for theft, and you factor in the “No knowledge” condition, what are you doing in this business anyway?
I used to feel sorry for the owners that were taken advantage of by thieving bartenders. I empathized for the college graduate with a degree in Hospitality Management who got their first job, entry level, as the lounge manager at a major hotel — then gets eaten up and spit out by the bartenders and servers who despise their presence because they think they know more about running a bar than the staff (and they don’t!). They’ve never walked in the staff’s shoes — yet they’re the authority. They’re the one that gets to make the life changing decisions — and the bartenders think, “And I work for this!?”
“Amazingly, many owners have a mystical, nonchalant attitude about bartender theft. Stories are told, in a cavalier way, about former bartenders who ‘made so much money off me they now drive a Cadillac and opened up their own bar.’” — Bob Johnson
And we wonder why there is such a problem with bartender theft? If theft is a continuing problem at your bar, you, the owner or manager, are the ones who probably created it. You allow it to happen. Often through your actions or policies, or lack thereof, you are responsible for making thieves out of “on the cusp” employees — employees who, once upon a time, would never think of taking a dime from anyone, but you made it so incredibly easy for them.
Yes, it takes a highly disciplined, morally intact individual with a strong sense of high personal values to avoid the “natural” tendency of theft available to a bartender. Where do you find them, and where do you find owners and managers who are knowledgeable about the bar business and deserving of a bartender’s respect?
Who is more at fault for theft in the bar business – the bartender, or the owner/manager?
I don’t excuse the bartender for doing what they know is wrong, but the ultimate blame for this problem lies with the owner/managers who allow it to happen in the first place. Most owners/managers don’t know enough about the bar business and shouldn’t be running a bar! There’s a world of difference between “running a bar” and “managing a bar.”
Bob Johnson is a 50-year veteran of the nightclub/bar industry specializing in cost controls, installing inventory control systems and training Bar Managers and Bartenders. He has been a featured speaker at numerous beverage related conventions and trade shows. Bob’s on-site consulting service is available nationwide. He can be reached at BobTheBarGuy.com.
