There are many methods to assess the inventory in bars and liquor inventory in restaurants. Each supplier of such Bar Inventory claims his being the best and most sophisticated. What are the facts?
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Movement Sensor
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Scale System
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Real-time Scale
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Recognizes the pouring action real time
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Yes, but not the quantity
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No, only at time of measurement
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Yes, including the quantity
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Bottle equipped with
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RFID or other transmitter equipped Pourer
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Work with the bottle barcode
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RFID chip on bottle
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Determines bottle Tare Weight
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Knows when bottle is empty
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Affected by interference from Cell Phones and similar
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Possible, also RFID signal collision possibility with loss
of data.
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No
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No
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Determines the actual quantity sold
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Can calculate revenue based on liquor volume
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Detects dilution immediately
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No
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Possible
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Yes
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Determines specific gravity of liquor
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Determines Tare weight of bottle
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Total Bar Personnel tracking
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No
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No
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Yes
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Connects to any
existing POS System
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Possible
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Possible
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Yes
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Suitable for...
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Approximate Revenue assessment.
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Inventory Management of bars with less than 150 bottles and
for inventory loss consultants to collect data.
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Total inventory management and control
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Used by...
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Single Unit Operations
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Single and Multiple Unit Operations.
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Single operations with several bars on premise, Multiple
Unit Operations, Chains and Hotel Chains.
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Main Problem...
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Every bottle must have a pourer
- some customers dislike
pourers.
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Not real time
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Extensive Installation
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Pourer
/ No
Pourer
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Must use pourer
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Individually programmable for pourer or no pourer
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Individually programmable for pourer or no pourer
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Stock Room Management
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Main Advantage...
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Easy set-up
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Low Cost - sophisticated software
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Absolute
real time and accurate control - professional
software
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Accuracy per measurement
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Unknown ( see below in Conclusion)
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0.01 oz
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0.01oz
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Cost of system for a bar with 150 bottles
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$25,000
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$1,500
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$45,000
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Priced based on quotes by:
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Capton
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Bar-Manager.com
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Bar-Manager.com
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Conclusion: Scale based systems give reliable and
accurate data. Bottle movement systems pretend a 1/10 oz accuracy –
but not stated is per drink or per bottle? In one movement a whole
bottle can be emptied and it registers only as 1 drink. Drinks can
be diluted anytime by removing the pourer and add another liquid.
Drinks can be dispensed without detection by simply removing the
pourer. Bar Personnel keen to cheat will surely find a way. Scale
based system eliminate many of these problems. The real time scale
system is so sophisticated that it basically detect any cheat
attempt and wrong quantities within seconds and records every
transaction in the database including the ID of the person using the
system at that time.
If a system is purchased for loss-prevention only scale based
systems can produce the required evidence and just by the mere
presence of the system produce less cash loss – these system pay for
themselves in a very short time by simply having more cash in the
register, therefore the slightly higher price of the real time
system is really worth it.