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Issue link: https://seafoodbusiness.epubxp.com/i/112398
Photo by Malerapaso / iStock Photo Behind the Line To catch a thief Look out for restaurant fraud that can eat away at the bottom line BY LAUREN KRAMER T heft in the restaurant industry is a widespread phenomenon, in part because the products available are items everyone can use. ���A restaurant is like a ship punctured by holes created 40 SeaFood Business March 2013 by theft,��� says Dan Cosgrove, CEO of Mercantile Systems in Brentwood, Calif. ���An owner or manager has to try and ���ll those holes so the ship doesn���t sink. And you can���t eliminate theft completely ��� you can only manage it to an acceptable percentage so that you can sleep at night. Otherwise, you can drive yourself crazy.��� Cosgrove estimates that restaurant theft costs the industry approximately 4 percent of annual sales. Mercantile Systems consults restaurants on how to minimize theft, including techniques like mystery shopping, cameras and investigative services. Over the years Cosgrove has seen the gamut of industry theft, from blatant stealing of products or cash to grayer areas, such as bartenders over-pouring alcohol for friends or regulars without charging extra. ���In a bar environment when you���re putting alcohol together with cash at night, it creates an opportunity that people sometimes cannot pass up,��� he says. One client that stands out was an Italian restaurant that was not making any pro���t. After conducting dining and bar surveys, Mercantile Systems showed bartenders failing to record drinks, up to 55 drinks at a time. Te chef was cooking food for sta��� to take home with them before closing up the kitchen and was using the restaurant���s scale to weigh and sell marijuana to customers and employees. ���We saw bartenders stealing, trading alcohol to other restaurants in exchange for food for themselves,��� he says. Te restaurant subsequently closed, as its owner had neglected the business to such an extent that it was no longer salvageable. ���Employees respect what you inspect,��� says Mike Bare, president of Bare International in Fairfax, Va. Te global mystery customer research organization helps restaurants discover if they���re experiencing theft, and if so where and how they can resolve it. ���Revenue loss doesn���t only occur with theft,��� says Bare. ���It���s also a result of a lack of upselling, a failure to Theft is estimated to cost restaurants 4 percent of annual sales. accommodate customers in a positive way and from a liability perspective, when you serve people who are intoxicated, who cause injury to others and then the restaurant or bar gets sued.��� Tere are a number of telltale signs that theft is taking ���In a bar environment when you���re putting alcohol together with cash at night, it creates an opportunity that people sometimes cannot pass up.��� ��� Dan Cosgrove, CEO, Mercantile Systems place in a restaurant. Bare and Cosgrove shared a few of the most common, along with some prevention tips. ��� Count your cash: ���Take tips and techniques from the days of old, when restaurant owners used to count money in the middle of shifts,��� says Cosgrove. He also counsels restaurant managers to count employees��� tip money to determine if they have a higher percentage of tips than there are sales. ���If my employee is making 50 percent of sales, it tells me he���s stealing,��� he says. Tips should always go into a receptacle for tips instead of into the cash drawer, adds Bare. ���We���ve seen sta��� shifting money from the cash drawer to the tip jar and these things aren���t checked as often as they should be. Inventories tend to be done monthly at the most, when in fact they should be done weekly at the least.��� ��� Pour cost: Keep a close tab on how much alcohol you purchase, versus how much you sell. If that ratio Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com