Is inventory based technology passing you by?
When we explain to people our E-pifani Liquor Inventory System when they ask what we do for a living, what it is we sell, they are astonished by the developments in technology and the promise that a system like ours offers to a bar owner. It seems like a “no-brainer”, protect your greatest cash cow; liquor and increase your bottom-line by securing revenues lost. Let’s face it, unsecured inventories will be pilfered, denying this elemental trait of human nature is senseless. For an F&B Manager to claim that “shrinkage” is not a problem indicates ignorance or complacency. Shrinkage is not a cost of doing business; it is a cost of someone not doing his or her job.
In 1879 James Ritty invented the first cash register in an attempt to deal with this issue. Wikipedia poignantly summarizes the cash register as follows:
A cash register (US English) or till (British English) is a mechanical or electronic device for calculating and recording sales transactions, and an attached cash drawer for storing cash. The cash register also usually prints a receipt for the customer.
In most cases the drawer can be opened only after a sale, except when using special keys, which only senior employees and the owner have. This reduces the risk of employees stealing from the shop owner by not recording a sale and pocketing the money, when a customer does not need a receipt but has to be given change (cash is more easily checked against recorded sales than inventory). In fact, cash registers were first invented for the purpose of eliminating employee theft or embezzlement, and their original name was the Incorruptible Cashier.[1] It has also been suggested[1] that odd pricing came about because by charging odd amounts like 49 or 99 cents, the cashier very probably had to open the till for the penny change and thus announce the sale.
Technology improved, with computers and POS software allowing us to generate better receipts and aggregate and calculate inventory data. It did nothing to improve accuracy of sales imputed. The biggest shortcoming with these technological developments until now is that cash registers and POS systems only identify what inventory an employee inputs into them. The accuracy of actual inventory sold is always subject to the customer demanding a receipt (although there are ways to generate fake or duplicate receipts to appease a customer) or the seller imputing the sale.
Like it or not, if the sale is not input into the till, you as an owner of the inventory will not know if a sale has occurred. The only way to avoid this dilemma is that you personally monitor all sales personally or do inventory regularly. The challenge with doing inventory is that it is a tedious, time consuming and often inaccurate process. This prevents bar management from doing inventory daily, but doing it daily is the only way for the data to be relevant. There’s nothing older than yesterdays news. What good does it do to identify shrinkage through a weekly or monthly inventory process, if you can’t identify why and when it occurred and who was responsible. The seemingly impenetrable veil or lack of transparency is what makes bartending such a lucrative job. Do you know how most bar owners and managers counteract this? By charging outlandish prices for their drinks.
Well, it’s time for a wake up call. Technology has evolved and now offers the perfect solution for identifying your true sales and making sure they are part of your bottom-line.
