Robin Apel, President at Barmetrix Vancouver, joins The Late Night Restaurant Podcast to reveal how restaurants are losing thousands of dollars every week without even knowing it.
Key Takeaways:
The Numbers Are Shocking
- One restaurant was losing $600/week on a single item (Kahlua in espresso martinis) due to bartenders overpouring by just a quarter ounce
- 15% of draft beer commonly goes unaccounted for - that's one in every seven kegs simply disappearing
- With proper inventory management, most of these losses are completely preventable
The Real Problems
- Post-COVID brain drain has left many restaurants with undertrained staff managing complex inventories
- Modern bars carry hundreds of SKUs compared to a handful decades ago
- Restaurants think they're doing okay because there's money in the bank, but they're leaving massive profit on the table
How Barmetrix Works
- Uses barcode scanners and digital scales to track inventory to the tenth of a gram
- Compares actual inventory against POS sales data to identify gaps
- Provides actionable insights: "Here's what left the building vs. what got rung in"
- No contracts, no obligations - prove the value in one month or walk away
Wild Stories from the Field
- Caught staff adding water to bottles to cover theft (froze bottles to test - liquor doesn't freeze, watered-down liquor does)
- Discovered a broken beer line in a wall by swapping tap positions
- One client put theft footage on screen at staff party and fired half the crew
The Bottom Line Robin's philosophy is simple: "I'm not going to change your prices, fire your staff, or switch your suppliers. I just want to get you paid for what's leaving the building." For restaurants doing any volume, the ROI is immediate and substantial.
Barmetrix operates across North America and internationally. No contracts. Just results.
Learn more: https://www.barmetrix.com/
