1954 Practical Bar Management by Eddie Clarke

BAR ACCOUNTANCY AND CONTROL

vary with the experience and ability of the personnel involved. Lack of knowledge of the main reasons for a surplus percentage has, from time to time, caused ill-informed comment, and in some cases a total misrepresentation of the facts. The main contributing factors producing, and governing, a surplus percent age may be given as follows: 1. The retail sales value given to each item is based on the selling price per measure. When, however, these items are used as ingredients for cocktails and other mixed drinks the revenue is invariably greater. 2. Generally speaking, the most popular mixed drink is Gin and Vermouth, and the proportion served of the latter frequently depends on the palate of the customer. 3. In many cases the retail sales value given by the stocktaker for an item is based on experience and is, in a sense, arbitrary, and it is a general rule that the balance of favour, if any, should be with the barman. Perhaps the most general examples of this may befound in the case of vermouths and squashes—the majority of these sales being made in mixed drinks. 4. Wine Cups and Fruit Cups are items which are governable to only a limited extent from a stocktaking point of view. 5. Glass measures for bar wine and aperitifs are frequently not exact multiples of a bottle, and the stocktaker will invariably give the barman the credit for the balance. 6. Expert service by a skilled operative will,in this business, as in any other, bring about satisfaction to the client along with an economic consumption. It should be made quite clear that the term "overage"or "surplus"percentage, as officially applied, is not an invitation to the barman to produce exceptional results at the expense of the client. From the point of view of the Management the main factors involved in bar operation may, perhaps, be summarized in the following way: («) Satisfaction of client. (6) Maintenance of an accepted budgetary percentage of profit. (c) Interest and satisfaction ofthe barman in his particular post.

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